Five Years Of

Theosophy,

by

Various Theosophical

Authors

 

Mystical, Philosophical, Theosophical, Historical

and Scientific Essays Selected from "The Theosophist"

Edited by George Robert Stow Mead

 

 

 

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The Secret Doctrine by H P Blavatsky

 

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FIVE YEARS OF THEOSOPHY

 

Mystical, Philosophical, Theosophical, Historical and Scientific Essays

Selected from "The Theosophist"

 

Edited by George Robert Stow Mead

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONTENTS

 

Mystical

 

The "Elixir of Life"

Is the Desire to "Live" Selfish?

Contemplation

Chelas and Lay Chelas

Ancient Opinions upon Psychic Bodies

The Nilgiri Sannyasis

Witchcraft on the Nilgiris

Shamanism and Witchcraft Amongst the Kolarian Tribes

Mahatmas and Chelas

The Brahmanical Thread

Reading in a Sealed Envelope

The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac

The Sishal and Bhukailas Yogis

 

Philosophical

 

True and False Personality

Chastity

Zorastrianism on the Septenary Constitution of Man

Brahmanism on the Sevenfold Principle in Man

The Septenary Principle in Esotericism

Personal and Impersonal God

Prakriti and Parusha

Morality and Pantheism

Occult Study

Some Inquiries Suggested by Mr. Sinnett's "Esoteric Buddhism"

Sakya Muni's Place in History

Inscriptions Discovered by General A. Cunningham

Discrimination of Spirit and Not-Spirit

Was Writing Known Before Panini?

 

Theosophical

 

What is Theosophy?

How a "Chela" Found His "Guru"

The Sages of the Himavat

The Himalayan Brothers--Do They Exist?

Interview With a Mahatma

The Secret Doctrine

 

Historical

 

The Puranas on the Dynasty of the Moryas and on Koothoomi

The Theory of Cycles

 

Scientific

 

Odorigen and Jiva

Introversion of Mental Vision

"Precipitation"

"How Shall We Sleep?"

Transmigration of the Life Atoms

"OM" and its Practical Significance

 

 

 

 

 

FIVE YEARS OF THEOSOPHY

 

 

Mystical

 

 

 

The "Elixir of Life"

       From a Chela's* Diary.  By G---M---, F.T.S.

 

"And Enoch walked with the Elohim, and the Elohim took him."

--Genesis

 

Introduction

 

[The curious information-for whatsoever else the world may think of it,

it will doubtless be acknowledged to be that--contained in the article

that follows, merits a few words of introduction. The details given in

it on the subject of what has always been considered as one of the

darkest and most strictly guarded of the mysteries of the initiation

into occultism--from the days of the Rishis until those of the

Theosophical Society--came to the knowledge of the author in a way that

would seem to the ordinary run of Europeans strange and supernatural.

He himself, however, we may assure the reader, is a most thorough

disbeliever in the Supernatural, though he has learned too much to limit

the capabilities of the natural as some do.  Further, he has to make the

following confession of his own belief.  It will be apparent, from a

careful perusal of the facts, that if the matter be really as stated

therein, the author cannot himself be an adept of high grade, as the

article in such a case would never have been written.  Nor does he

pretend to be one.  He is, or rather was, for a few years an humble

Chela. Hence, the converse must consequently be also true, that as

regards the higher stages of the mystery he can have no personal

experience, but speaks of it only as a close observer left to his own

surmises--and no more.  He may, therefore, boldly state that during, and

notwithstanding, his unfortunately rather too short stay with some

adepts, he has by actual experiment and observation verified some of the

less transcendental or incipient parts of the "Course."  And, though it

will be impossible for him to give positive testimony as to what lies

beyond, he may yet mention that all his own course of study, training

and experience, long, severe and dangerous as it has often been, leads

him to the conviction that everything is really as stated, save some

details purposely veiled.  For causes which cannot be explained to the

public, he himself may he unable or unwilling to use the secret he has

gained access to.  Still he is permitted by one to whom all his

reverential affection and gratitude are due--his last guru--to divulge

for the benefit of Science and Man, and specially for the good of those

who are courageous enough to personally make the experiment, the

following astounding particulars of the occult methods for prolonging

life to a period far beyond the common.--G.M.]

 

---------

* A. Chela is the pupil and disciple of an initiated Guru or

Master.--Ed.

---------

 

 

Probably one of the first considerations which move the worldly-minded

at present to solicit initiation into Theosophy is the belief, or hope,

that, immediately on joining, some extraordinary advantage over the rest

of mankind will be conferred upon the candidate.  Some even think that

the ultimate result of their initiation will perhaps be exemption from

that dissolution which is called the common lot of mankind.  The

traditions of the "Elixir of Life," said to be in the possession of

Kabalists and Alchemists, are still cherished by students of Medieval

Occultism--in Europe.  The allegory of the Ab-e Hyat or Water of Life,

is still credited as a fact by the degraded remnants of the Asiatic

esoteric sects ignorant of the real GREAT SECRET. The "pungent and fiery

Essence," by which Zanoni renewed his existence, still fires the

imagination of modern visionaries as a possible scientific discovery of

the future.

 

Theosophically, though the fact is distinctly declared to be true, the

above-named conceptions of the mode of procedure leading to the

realization of the fact, are known to be false. The reader may or may

not believe it;  but as a matter of fact, Theosophical Occultists claim

to have communication with (living) Intelligences possessing an

infinitely wider range of observation than is contemplated even by the

loftiest aspirations of modern science, all the present "Adepts" of

Europe and America--dabblers in the Kabala--notwithstanding.  But far

even as those superior Intelligences have investigated (or, if

preferred, are alleged to have investigated), and remotely as they may

have searched by the help of inference and analogy, even They have

failed to discover in the Infinity anything permanent but--SPACE.  ALL

IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.  Reflection, therefore, will easily suggest to the

reader the further logical inference that in a Universe which is

essentially impermanent in its conditions, nothing can confer

permanency.  Therefore, no possible substance, even if drawn from the

depths of Infinity;  no imaginable combination of drugs, whether of our

earth or any other, though compounded by even the Highest Intelligence;

no system of life or discipline though directed by the sternest

determination and skill, could possibly produce Immutability.  For in

the universe of solar systems, wherever and however investigated,

Immutability necessitates "Non-Being" in the physical sense given it by

the Theists-Non-Being which is nothing in the narrow conceptions of

Western Religionists--a reductio ad absurdum.  This is a gratuitous

insult even when applied to the pseudo-Christian or ecclesiastical

Jehovite idea of God.

 

Consequently, it will be seen that the common ideal conception of

"Immortality" is not only essentially wrong, but a physical and

metaphysical impossibility. The idea, whether cherished by Theosophists

or non-Theosophists, by Christians or Spiritualists, by Materialists or

Idealists, is a chimerical illusion.  But the actual prolongation of

human life is possible for a time so long as to appear miraculous and

incredible to those who regard our span of existence as necessarily

limited to at most a couple of hundred years.  We may break, as it were,

the shock of Death, and instead of dying, change a sudden plunge into

darkness to a transition into a brighter light.  And this may be made so

gradual that the passage from one state of existence to another shall

have its friction minimized, so as to be practically imperceptible.

This is a very different matter, and quite within the reach of Occult

Science.  In this, as in all other cases, means properly directed will

gain their ends, and causes produce effects. Of course, the only

question is, what are these causes, and how, in their turn, are they to

be produced.  To lift, as far as may be allowed, the veil from this

aspect of Occultism, is the object of the present paper.

 

We must premise by reminding the reader of two Theosophic doctrines,

constantly inculcated in "Isis" and in other mystic works--namely, (a)

that ultimately the Kosmos is One--one under infinite variations and

manifestations, and (b) that the so-called man is a "compound being"--

composite not only in the exoteric scientific sense of being a congeries

of living so-called material Units, but also in the esoteric sense of

being a succession of seven forms or parts of itself, interblended with

each other.  To put it more clearly we might say that the more ethereal

forms are but duplicates of the same aspect,--each finer one lying

within the inter-atomic spaces of the next grosser.  We would have the

reader understand that these are no subtleties, no "spiritualities" at

all in the Christo-Spiritualistic sense.  In the actual man reflected in

your mirror are really several men, or several parts of one composite

man;  each the exact counterpart of the other, but the "atomic

conditions" (for want of a better word) of each of which are so arranged

that its atoms interpenetrate those of the next "grosser" form.  It does

not, for our present purpose, matter how the Theosophists,

Spiritualists, Buddhists, Kabalists, or Vedantists, count, separate,

classify, arrange or name these, as that war of terms may be postponed

to another occasion.  Neither does it matter what relation each of these

men has to the various "elements" of the Kosmos of which he forms a

part. This knowledge, though of vital importance in other respects, need

not be explained or discussed now.  Nor does it much more concern us

that the Scientists deny the existence of such an arrangement, because

their instruments are inadequate to make their senses perceive it.  We

will simply reply--"get better instruments and keener senses, and

eventually you will."

 

All we have to say is that if you are anxious to drink of the "Elixir of

Life," and live a thousand years or so, you must take our word for the

matter at present, and proceed on the assumption.  For esoteric science

does not give the faintest possible hope that the desired end will ever

be attained by any other way;  while modern, or so-called exact

science--laughs at it.

 

So, then, we have arrived at the point where we have determined--

literally, not metaphorically--to crack the outer shell known as the

mortal coil or body, and hatch out of it, clothed in our next.  This

"next" is not spiritual, but only a more ethereal form.  Having by a

long training and preparation adapted it for a life in this atmosphere,

during which time we have gradually made the outward shell to die off

through a certain process (hints of which will be found further on) we

have to prepare for this physiological transformation.

 

How are we to do it?  In the first place we have the actual, visible,

material body--Man, so called;  though, in fact, but his outer shell--to

deal with. Let us bear in mind that science teaches us that in about

every seven years we change skin as effectually as any serpent;  and

this so gradually and imperceptibly that, had not science after years of

unremitting study and observation assured us of it, no one would have

had the slightest suspicion of the fact.

 

We see, moreover, that in process of time any cut or lesion upon the

body, however deep, has a tendency to repair the loss and reunite;  a

piece of lost skin is very soon replaced by another. Hence, if a man,

partially flayed alive, may sometimes survive and be covered with a new

skin, so our astral, vital body--the fourth of the seven (having

attracted and assimilated to itself the second) and which is so much

more ethereal than the physical one--may be made to harden its particles

to the atmospheric changes.  The whole secret is to succeed in evolving

it out, and separating it from the visible;  and while its generally

invisible atoms proceed to concrete themselves into a compact mass, to

gradually get rid of the old particles of our visible frame so as to

make them die and disappear before the new set has had time to evolve

and replace them.  We can say no more.  The Magdalene is not the only

one who could be accused of having "seven spirits" in her, though men

who have a lesser number of spirits (what a misnomer that word!) in

them, are not few or exceptional;  they are the frequent failures of

nature--the incomplete men and women.*

 

-----------

* This is not to be taken as meaning that such persons are thoroughly

destitute of some one or several of the seven principles--a man born

without an arm has still its ethereal counterpart;  but that they are so

latent that they cannot be developed, and consequently are to be

considered as non-existing.--Ed. Theos.

----------

 

Each of these has in turn to survive the preceding and more dense one,

and then die.  The exception is the sixth when absorbed into and blended

with the seventh.  The "Phatu" * of the old Hindu physiologist had a

dual meaning, the esoteric side of which corresponds with the Tibetan

"Zung" (seven principles of the body).

 

We Asiatics, have a proverb, probably handed down to us, and by the

Hindus repeated ignorantly as to its esoteric meaning.  It has been

known ever since the old Rishis mingled familiarly with the simple and

noble people they taught and led on.  The Devas had whispered into every

man's ear--Thou only--if thou wilt--art "immortal."  Combine with this

the saying of a Western author that if any man could just realize for an

instant, that he had to die some day, he would die that instant.  The

Illuminated will perceive that between these two sayings, rightly

understood, stands revealed the whole secret of Longevity.  We only die

when our will ceases to be strong enough to make us live.  In the

majority of cases, death comes when the torture and vital exhaustion

accompanying a rapid change in our physical conditions becomes so

intense as to weaken, for one single instant, our "clutch on life," or

the tenacity of the will to exist.  Till then, however severe may be the

disease, however sharp the pang, we are only sick or wounded, as the

case may be.

 

-----------

* Dhatu--the seven principal substances of the human body--chyle, flesh,

blood, fat, bones, marrow, semen.

-----------

 

This explains the cases of sudden deaths from joy, fright, pain, grief

or such other causes.  The sense of a life-task consummated, of the

worthlessness of one's existence, if strongly realized, produced death

as surely as poison or a rifle-bullet. On the other hand, a stern

determination to continue to live, has, in fact, carried many through

the crises of the most severe diseases, in perfect safety.

 

First, then, must be the determination--the Will--the conviction of

certainty, to survive and continue.*  Without that, all else is useless.

And to be efficient for the purpose, it must be, not only a passing

resolution of the moment, a single fierce desire of short duration, but

a settled and continued strain, as nearly as can be continued and

concentrated without one single moment's relaxation.  In a word, the

would-be "Immortal" must be on his watch night and day, guarding self

against-himself.  To live--to live--to live--must be his unswerving

resolve.  He must as little as possible allow himself to be turned aside

from it.  It may be said that this is the most concentrated form of

selfishness,--that it is utterly opposed to our Theosophic professions

of benevolence, and disinterestedness, and regard for the good of

humanity.  Well, viewed in a short-sighted way, it is so.  But to do

good, as in everything else, a man must have time and materials to work

with, and this is a necessary means to the acquirement of powers by

which infinitely more good can be done than without them.

 

----------

* Col. Olcott has epigrammatically explained the creative or rather the

re-creative power of the Will, in his "Buddhist Catechism."  He there

shows--of course, speaking on behalf of the Southern Buddhists--that

this Will to live, if not extinguished in the present life, leaps over

the chasm of bodily death, and recombines the Skandhas, or groups of

qualities that made up the individual into a new personality.  Man is,

therefore, reborn as the result of his own unsatisfied yearning for

objective existence.  Col. Olcott puts it in this way:

 

Q.  123.  What is that, in man, which gives him the impression of

having a permanent individuality?

 

A.  Tanha, or the unsatisfied desire for existence.  The being having

done that for which he must be rewarded or punished in future, and

having Tanha, will have a rebirth through the influence of Karma.

 

Q.  124.  ....What is it that is reborn?

 

A.  A new aggregation of Skandhas, or individuality, caused by the last

yearning of the dying person.

 

Q.  128. To what cause must we attribute the differences in the

combination of the Five Skandhas has which makes every individual

different from every other individual?

 

A.  To the Karma of the individual in the next preceding birth.

 

Q.  129.  What is the force or energy that is at work, under the

guidance of Karma, to produce the new being?

 

A.  Tanha--the "Will to Live."

----------

 

When these are once mastered, the opportunities to use them will arrive,

for there comes a moment when further watch and exertion are no longer

needed:--the moment when the turning-point is safely passed.  For the

present as we deal with aspirants and not with advanced chelas, in the

first stage a determined, dogged resolution, and an enlightened

concentration of self on self, are all that is absolutely necessary.  It

must not, however, be considered that the candidate is required to be

unhuman or brutal in his negligence of others.  Such a recklessly

selfish course would be as injurious to him as the contrary one of

expending his vital energy on the gratification of his physical desires.

All that is required from him is a purely negative attitude.  Until the

turning-point is reached, he must not "lay out" his energy in lavish or

fiery devotion to any cause, however noble, however "good," however

elevated.*  Such, we can solemnly assure the reader, would bring its

reward in many ways--perhaps in another life, perhaps in this world, but

it would tend to shorten the existence it is desired to preserve, as

surely as self-indulgence and profligacy.  That is why very few of the

truly great men of the world (of course, the unprincipled adventurers

who have applied great powers to bad uses are out of the question)--the

martyrs, the heroes, the founders of religions, the liberators of

nations, the leaders of reforms--ever became members of the long-lived

"Brotherhood of Adepts" who were by some and for long years accused of

selfishness.  (And that is also why the Yogis, and the Fakirs of modern

India--most of whom are acting now but on the dead-letter tradition, are

required if they would be considered living up to the principles of

their profession--to appear entirely dead to every inward feeling or

emotion.) Notwithstanding the purity of their hearts, the greatness of

their aspirations, the disinterestedness of their self-sacrifice, they

could not live for they had missed the hour.

 

--------

* On page 151 of Mr. Sinnett's "Occult World," the author's much abused,

and still more doubted correspondent assures him that none yet of his

"degree are like the stern hero of Bulwer's" Zanoni.... "the heartless

morally dried up mummies some would fancy us to be" and adds that few of

them "would care to play the part in life of a desiccated pansy between

the leaves of a volume of solemn poetry."  But our adept omits saying

that one or two degrees higher, and he will have to submit for a period

of years to such a mummifying process unless, indeed, he would

voluntarily give up a life-long labour and--Die.--Ed.

----------

 

They may at times have exercised powers which the world called

miraculous;  they may have electrified man and subdued Nature by fiery

and self-devoted Will;  they may have been possessed of a so-called

superhuman intelligence;  they may have even had knowledge of, and

communion with, members of our own occult Brotherhood;  but, having

deliberately resolved to devote their vital energy to the welfare of

others, rather than to themselves, they have surrendered life;  and,

when perishing on the cross or the scaffold, or falling, sword in hand,

upon the battle-field, or sinking exhausted after a successful

consummation of the life-object, on death-beds in their chambers, they

have all alike had to cry out at last:  "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!"

 

So far so good.  But, given the will to live, however powerful, we have

seen that, in the ordinary course of mundane life, the throes of

dissolution cannot be checked.  The desperate, and again and again

renewed struggle of the Kosmic elements to proceed with a career of

change despite the will that is checking them, like a pair of runaway

horses struggling against the determined driver holding them in, are so

cumulatively powerful, that the utmost efforts of the untrained human

will acting within an unprepared body become ultimately useless.  The

highest intrepidity of the bravest soldier;  the interest desire of the

yearning lover;  the hungry greed of the unsatisfied miser;  the most

undoubting faith of the sternest fanatic;  the practiced insensibility

to pain of the hardiest red Indian brave or half-trained Hindu Yogi;

the most deliberate philosophy of the calmest thinker--all alike fail at

last.  Indeed, sceptics will allege in opposition to the verities of

this article that, as a matter of experience, it is often observed that

the mildest and most irresolute of minds and the weakest of physical

frames are often seen to resist "Death" longer than the powerful will of

the high-spirited and obstinately-egotistic man, and the iron frame of

the labourer, the warrior and the athlete.  In reality, however, the key

to the secret of these apparently contradictory phenomena is the true

conception of the very thing we have already said.  If the physical

development of the gross "outer shell" proceeds on parallel lines and at

an equal rate with that of the will, it stands to reason that no

advantage for the purpose of overcoming it, is attained by the latter.

The acquisition of improved breechloaders by one modern army confers no

absolute superiority if the enemy also becomes possessed of them.

Consequently it will be at once apparent, to those who think on the

subject, that much of the training by which what is known as "a powerful

and determined nature," perfects itself for its own purpose on the stage

of the visible world, necessitating and being useless without a parallel

development of the "gross" and so-called animal frame, is, in short,

neutralized, for the purpose at present treated of, by the fact that its

own action has armed the enemy with weapons equal to its own.  The force

of the impulse to dissolution is rendered equal to the will to oppose

it;  and being cumulative, subdues the will-power and triumphs at last.

On the other hand, it may happen that an apparently weak and vacillating

will-power residing in a weak and undeveloped physical frame, may be so

reinforced by some unsatisfied desire--the Ichcha (wish)--as it is

called by the Indian Occultists (for instance, a mother's heart-yearning

to remain and support her fatherless children)--as to keep down and

vanquish, for a short time, the physical throes of a body to which it

has become temporarily superior.

 

The whole rationale then, of the first condition of continued existence

in this world, is (a) the development of a Will so powerful as to

overcome the hereditary (in a Darwinian sense) tendencies of the atoms

composing the "gross" and palpable animal frame, to hurry on at a

particular period in a certain course of Kosmic change;  and (b) to so

weaken the concrete action of that animal frame as to make it more

amenable to the power of the Will.  To defeat an army, you must

demoralize and throw it into disorder.

 

To do this then, is the real object of all the rites, ceremonies, fasts,

"prayers," meditations, initiations and procedures of self-discipline

enjoined by various esoteric Eastern sects, from that course of pure and

elevated aspiration which leads to the higher phases of Adeptism Real,

down to the fearful and disgusting ordeals which the adherent of the

"Left-hand-Road" has to pass through, all the time maintaining his

equilibrium.  The procedures have their merits and their demerits, their

separate uses and abuses, their essential and non-essential parts, their

various veils, mummeries, and labyrinths.  But in all, the result aimed

at is reached, if by different processes.  The Will is strengthened,

encouraged and directed, and the elements opposing its action are

demoralized.  Now, to any one who has thought out and connected the

various evolution theories, as taken, not from any occult source, but

from the ordinary scientific manual accessible to all--from the

hypothesis of the latest variation in the habits of species--say, the

acquisition of carnivorous habits by the New Zealand parrot, for

instance--to the farthest glimpses backwards into Space and Eternity

afforded by the "Fire Mist" doctrine, it will be apparent that they all

rest on one basis. That basis is, that the impulse once given to a

hypothetical Unit has a tendency to continue;  and consequently, that

anything "done" by something at a certain time and certain place tends

to repeat itself at other times and places.

 

Such is the admitted rationale of heredity and atavism.  That the same

things apply to our ordinary conduct is apparent from the notorious ease

with which "habits,"--bad or good, as the case may be--are acquired, and

it will not be questioned that this applies, as a rule, as much to the

moral and intellectual, as to the physical world.

 

Furthermore, History and Science teach us plainly that certain physical

habits conduce to certain moral and intellectual results.  There never

yet was a conquering nation of vegetarians. Even in the old Aryan times,

we do not learn that the very Rishis, from whose lore and practice we

gain the knowledge of Occultism, ever interdicted the Kshetriya

(military) caste from hunting or a carnivorous diet.  Filling, as they

did, a certain place in the body politic in the actual condition of the

world, the Rishis as little thought of interfering with them, as of

restraining the tigers of the jungle from their habits.  That did not

affect what the Rishis did themselves.

 

The aspirant to longevity then must be on his guard against two dangers.

He must beware especially of impure and animal* thoughts. For Science

shows that thought is dynamic, and the thought-force evolved by nervous

action expanding outwardly, must affect the molecular relations of the

physical man.  The inner men,** however sublimated their organism may

be, are still composed of actual, not hypothetical, particles, and are

still subject to the law that an "action" has a tendency to repeat

itself;  a tendency to set up analogous action in the grosser "shell"

they are in contact with, and concealed within.

 

----------

* In other words, the thought tends to provoke the deed.--G.M.

 

** We use the word in the plural, reminding the reader that, according

to our doctrine, man is septenary.--G.M.

----------

 

And, on the other hand, certain actions have a tendency to produce

actual physical conditions unfavourable to pure thoughts, hence to the

state required for developing the supremacy of the inner man.

 

To return to the practical process.  A normally healthy mind, in a

normally healthy body, is a good starting-point.  Though exceptionally

powerful and self-devoted natures may sometimes recover the ground lost

by mental degradation or physical misuse, by employing proper means,

under the direction of unswerving resolution, yet often things may have

gone so far that there is no longer stamina enough to sustain the

conflict sufficiently long to perpetuate this life;  though what in

Eastern parlance is called the "merit" of the effort will help to

ameliorate conditions and improve matters in another.

 

However this may be, the prescribed course of self-discipline commences

here.  It may be stated briefly that its essence is a course of moral,

mental, and physical development, carried on in parallel lines--one

being useless without the other.  The physical man must be rendered more

ethereal and sensitive;  the mental man more penetrating and profound;

the moral man more self-denying and philosophical.  And it may be

mentioned that all sense of restraint--even if self-imposed--is useless.

Not only is all "goodness" that results from the compulsion of physical

force, threats, or bribes (whether of a physical or so-called

"spiritual" nature) absolutely useless to the person who exhibits it,

its hypocrisy tending to poison the moral atmosphere of the world, but

the desire to be "good" or "pure," to be efficacious must be

spontaneous.  It must be a self-impulse from within, a real preference

for something higher, not an abstention from vice because of fear of the

law:  not a chastity enforced by the dread of Public Opinion;  not a

benevolence exercised through love of praise or dread of consequences in

a hypothetical Future Life.*

 

----------

* Col. Olcott clearly and succinctly explains the Buddhist doctrine of

Merit or Karma, in his "Buddhist Catechism."

(Question 83).--G.M.

----------

 

It will be seen now in connection with the doctrine of the tendency

to the renewal of action, before discussed, that the course of

self-discipline recommended as the only road to Longevity by Occultism

is not a "visionary" theory dealing with vague "ideas," but actually a

scientifically devised system of drill.  It is a system by which each

particle of the several men composing the septenary individual receives

an impulse, and a habit of doing what is necessary for certain purposes

of its own free-will and with "pleasure."  Every one must be practiced

and perfect in a thing to do it with pleasure.  This rule especially

applies to the case of the development of Man.  "Virtue" may be very

good in its way--it may lead to the grandest results. But to become

efficacious it has to be practiced cheerfully not with reluctance or

pain.  As a consequence of the above consideration the candidate for

Longevity at the commencement of his career must begin to eschew his

physical desires, not from any sentimental theory of right or wrong, but

for the following good reason.  As, according to a well-known and now

established scientific theory, his visible material frame is always

renewing its particles;  he will, while abstaining from the

gratification of his desires, reach the end of a certain period during

which those particles which composed the man of vice, and which were

given a bad predisposition, will have departed.  At the same time, the

disuse of such functions will tend to obstruct the entry, in place of

the old particles, of new particles having a tendency to repeat the said

acts.  And while this is the particular result as regards certain

"vices," the general result of an abstention from "gross" acts will be

(by a modification of the well-known Darwinian law of atrophy by

non-usage) to diminish what we may call the "relative" density and

coherence of the outer shell (as a result of its less-used molecules);

while the diminution in the quantity of its actual constituents will he

"made up" (if tried by scales and weights) by the increased admission of

more ethereal particles.

 

What physical desires are to be abandoned and in what order? First and

foremost, he must give up alcohol in all forms;  for while it supplies

no nourishment, nor any direct pleasure (beyond such sweetness or

fragrance as may be gained in the taste of wine, &c., to which alcohol,

in itself, is non-essential) to even the grossest elements of the

"physical" frame, it induces a violence of action, a rush so to speak,

of life, the stress of which can only be sustained by very dull, gross,

and dense elements, and which, by the operation of the well-known law of

Re-action (in commercial phrase, "supply and demand") tends to summon

them from the surrounding universe, and therefore directly counteracts

the object we have in view.

 

Next comes meat-eating, and for the very same reason, in a minor degree.

It increases the rapidity of life, the energy of action, the violence of

passions.  It may be good for a hero who has to fight and die, but not

for a would-be sage who has to exist and....

 

Next in order come the sexual desires;  for these, in addition to the

great diversion of energy (vital force) into other channels, in many

different ways, beyond the primary one (as, for instance, the waste of

energy in expectation, jealousy, &c.), are direct attractions to a

certain gross quality of the original matter of the Universe, simply

because the most pleasurable physical sensations are only possible at

that stage of density.  Alongside with and extending beyond all these

and other gratifications of the senses (which include not only those

things usually known as "vicious," but all those which, though

ordinarily regarded as "innocent," have yet the disqualification of

ministering to the pleasures of the body--the most harmless to others

and the least "gross" being the criterion for those to be last abandoned

in each case)--must be carried on the moral purification.

 

Nor must it be imagined that "austerities" as commonly understood can,

in the majority of cases, avail much to hasten the "etherealizing"

process.  That is the rock on which many of the Eastern esoteric sects

have foundered, and the reason why they have degenerated into degrading

superstitions.  The Western monks and the Eastern Yogees, who think they

will reach the apex of powers by concentrating their thought on their

navel, or by standing on one leg, are practicing exercises which serve

no other purpose than to strengthen the willpower, which is sometimes

applied to the basest purposes.  These are examples of this one-sided

and dwarf development.  It is no use to fast as long as you require

food.  The ceasing of desire for food without impairment of health is

the sign which indicates that it should be taken in lesser and ever

decreasing quantities until the extreme limit compatible with life is

reached.  A stage will be finally attained where only water will be

required.

 

Nor is it of any use for this particular purpose of longevity to abstain

from immorality so long as you are craving for it in your heart;  and so

on with all other unsatisfied inward cravings.  To get rid of the inward

desire is the essential thing, and to mimic the real thing without it is

barefaced hypocrisy and useless slavery.

 

So it must be with the moral purification of the heart.  The "basest"

inclinations must go first--then the others.  First avarice, then fear,

then envy, worldly pride, uncharitableness, hatred;  last of all

ambition and curiosity must be abandoned successively.  The

strengthening of the more ethereal and so-called "spiritual" parts of

the man must go on at the same time. Reasoning from the known to the

unknown, meditation must be practiced and encouraged.  Meditation is the

inexpressible yearning of the inner Man to "go out towards the

infinite," which in the olden time was the real meaning of adoration,

but which has now no synonym in the European languages, because the

thing no longer exists in the West, and its name has been vulgarized to

the make-believe shams known as prayer, glorification, and repentance.

Through all stages of training the equilibrium of the consciousness--the

assurance that all must be right in the Kosmos, and therefore with you a

portion of it--must be retained. The process of life must not be hurried

but retarded, if possible;  to do otherwise may do good to others--

perhaps even to yourself in other spheres, but it will hasten your

dissolution in this.

 

Nor must the externals be neglected in this first stage. Remember that

an adept, though "existing" so as to convey to ordinary minds the idea

of his being immortal, is not also invulnerable to agencies from

without.  The training to prolong life does not, in itself, secure one

from accidents.  As far as any physical preparation goes, the sword may

still cut, the disease enter, the poison disarrange.  This case is very

clearly and beautifully put in "Zanoni," and it is correctly put and

must be so, unless all "adeptism" is a baseless lie.  The adept may be

more secure from ordinary dangers than the common mortal, but he is so

by virtue of the superior knowledge, calmness, coolness and penetration

which his lengthened existence and its necessary concomitants have

enabled him to acquire;  not by virtue of any preservative power in the

process itself.  He is secure as a man armed with a rifle is more secure

than a naked baboon;  not secure in the sense in which the deva (god)

was supposed to be securer than a man.

 

If this is so in the case of the high adept, how much more necessary is

it that the neophyte should be not only protected but that he himself

should use all possible means to ensure for himself the necessary

duration of life to complete the process of mastering the phenomena we

call death!  It may be said, why do not the higher adepts protect him?

Perhaps they do to some extent, but the child must learn to walk alone;

to make him independent of his own efforts in respect to safety, would

be destroying one element necessary to his development--the sense of

responsibility.  What courage or conduct would be called for in a man

sent to fight when armed with irresistible weapons and clothed in

impenetrable armour?  Hence the neophyte should endeavour, as far as

possible, to fulfill every true canon of sanitary law as laid down by

modern scientists.  Pure air, pure water, pure food, gentle exercise,

regular hours, pleasant occupations and surroundings, are all, if not

indispensable, at least serviceable to his progress.  It is to secure

these, at least as much as silence and solitude, that the Gods, Sages,

Occultists of all ages have retired as much as possible to the quiet of

the country, the cool cave, the depths of the forest, the expanse of the

desert, or the heights of the mountains.  Is it not suggestive that the

Gods have always loved the "high places";  and that in the present day

the highest section of the Occult Brotherhood on earth inhabits the

highest mountain plateaux of the earth?*

 

---------

* The stern prohibition to the Jews to serve "their gods upon the high

mountains and upon the hills" is traced back to the unwillingness of

their ancient elders to allow people in most cases unfit for adeptship

to choose a life of celibacy and asceticism, or in other words, to

pursue adeptship.  This prohibition had an esoteric meaning before it

became the prohibition, incomprehensible in its dead-letter sense:  for

it is not India alone whose sons accorded divine honours to the Wise

Ones, but all nations regarded their adepts and initiates as divine.--

G.M.

---------

 

Nor must the beginner disdain the assistance of medicine and good

medical regimen.  He is still an ordinary mortal, and he requires the

aid of an ordinary mortal.

 

"Suppose, however, all the conditions required, or which will be

understood as required (for the details and varieties of treatment

requisite, are too numerous to be detailed here), are fulfilled, what is

the next step?" the reader will ask.  Well if there have been no

backslidings or remissness in the procedure indicated, the following

physical results will follow:--

 

First the neophyte will take more pleasure in things spiritual and pure.

Gradually gross and material occupations will become not only uncraved

for or forbidden, but simply and literally repulsive to him.  He will

take more pleasure in the simple sensations of Nature--the sort of

feeling one can remember to have experienced as a child.  He will feel

more light-hearted, confident, happy.  Let him take care the sensation

of renewed youth does not mislead, or he will yet risk a fall into his

old baser life and even lower depths.  "Action and Re-action are equal."

 

Now the desire for food will begin to cease.  Let it be left off

gradually--no fasting is required.  Take what you feel you require.  The

food craved for will be the most innocent and simple.  Fruit and milk

will usually be the best.  Then as till now, you have been simplifying

the quality of your food, gradually--very gradually--as you feel capable

of it diminish the quantity.  You will ask:  "Can a man exist without

food?"  No, but before you mock, consider the character of the process

alluded to.  It is a notorious fact that many of the lowest and simplest

organisms have no excretions.  The common guinea-worm is a very good

instance.  It has rather a complicated organism, but it has no

ejaculatory duct.  All it consumes--the poorest essences of the human

body--is applied to its growth and propagation.  Living as it does in

human tissue, it passes no digested food away.  The human neophyte, at a

certain stage of his development, is in a somewhat analogous condition,

with this difference or differences, that he does excrete, but it is

through the pores of his skin, and by those too enter other etherealized

particles of matter to contribute towards his support.*  Otherwise, all

the food and drink is sufficient only to keep in equilibrium those

"gross" parts of his physical body which still remain to repair their

cuticle-waste through the medium of the blood.  Later on, the process of

cell-development in his frame will undergo a change;  a change for the

better, the opposite of that in disease for the worse--he will become

all living and sensitive, and will derive nourishment from the Ether

(Akas).  But that epoch for our neophyte is yet far distant.

 

---------

* He is in a state similar to the physical state of a fetus

before birth into the world.--G.M.

---------

 

Probably, long before that period has arrived, other results, no less

surprising than incredible to the uninitiated will have ensued to give

our neophyte courage and consolation in his difficult task.  It would be

but a truism to repeat what has been again alleged (in ignorance of its

real rationale) by hundreds and hundreds of writers as to the happiness

and content conferred by a life of innocence and purity.  But often at

the very commencement of the process some real physical result,

unexpected and unthought of by the neophyte, occurs.  Some lingering

disease, hitherto deemed hopeless, may take a favourable turn; or he may

develop healing mesmeric powers himself;  or some hitherto unknown

sharpening of his senses may delight him.  The rationale of these things

is, as we have said, neither miraculous nor difficult of comprehension.

In the first place, the sudden change in the direction of the vital

energy (which, whatever view we take of it and its origin, is

acknowledged by all schools of philosophy as most recondite, and as the

motive power) must produce results of some kind.  In the second,

Theosophy shows, as we said before, that a man consists of several men

pervading each other, and on this view (although it is very difficult to

express the idea in language) it is but natural that the progressive

etherealization of the densest and most gross of all should leave the

others literally more at liberty.  A troop of horses may be blocked by a

mob and have much difficulty in fighting its way through;  but if every

one of the mob could be changed suddenly into a ghost, there would be

little to retard it.  And as each interior entity is more rare, active,

and volatile than the outer and as each has relation with different

elements, spaces, and properties of the Kosmos which are treated of in

other articles on Occultism, the mind of the reader may conceive--though

the pen of the writer could not express it in a dozen volumes--the

magnificent possibilities gradually unfolded to the neophyte.

 

Many of the opportunities thus suggested may be taken advantage of by

the neophyte for his own safety, amusement, and the good of those around

him;  but the way in which he does this is one adapted to his fitness--a

part of the ordeal he has to pass through, and misuse of these powers

will certainly entail the loss of them as a natural result.  The Itchcha

(or desire) evoked anew by the vistas they open up will retard or throw

back his progress.

 

But there is another portion of the Great Secret to which we must

allude, and which is now, for the first, in a long series of ages,

allowed to be given out to the world, as the hour for it is come.

 

The educated reader need not be reminded again that one of the great

discoveries which has immortalized the name of Darwin is the law that an

organism has always a tendency to repeat, at an analogous period in its

life, the action of its progenitors, the more surely and completely in

proportion to their proximity in the scale of life.  One result of this

is, that, in general, organized beings usually die at a period (on an

average) the same as that of their progenitors.  It is true that there

is a great difference between the actual ages at which individuals of

any species die.  Disease, accidents and famine are the main agents in

causing this.  But there is, in each species, a well-known limit within

which the Race-life lies, and none are known to survive beyond it.  This

applies to the human species as well as any other.  Now, supposing that

every possible sanitary condition had been complied with, and every

accident and disease avoided by a man of ordinary frame, in some

particular case there would still, as is known to medical men, come a

time when the particles of the body would feel the hereditary tendency

to do that which leads inevitably to dissolution, and would obey it.  It

must be obvious to any reflecting man that, if by any procedure this

critical climacteric could be once thoroughly passed over, the

subsequent danger of "Death" would be proportionally less as the years

progressed.  Now this, which no ordinary and unprepared mind and body

can do, is possible sometimes for the will and the frame of one who has

been specially prepared.  There are fewer of the grosser particles

present to feel the hereditary bias--there is the assistance of the

reinforced "interior men" (whose normal duration is always greater even

in natural death) to the visible outer shell, and there is the drilled

and indomitable Will to direct and wield the whole.*

 

-----------

* In this connection we may as well show what modern science, and

especially physiology has to say as to the power of the human will.

"The force of will is a potent element in determining longevity.  This

single point must be granted without argument, that of two men every way

alike and similarly circumstanced, the one who has the greater courage

and grit will be longer-lived. One does not need to practice medicine

long to learn that men die who might just as well live if they resolved

to live, and that myriads who are invalids could become strong if they

had the native or acquired will to vow they would do so.  Those who have

no other quality favourable to life, whose bodily organs are nearly

all diseased, to whom each day is a day of pain, who are beset by

life-shortening influences, yet do live by will alone."

--Dr. George M. Beard.

-------------

 

From that time forward the course of the aspirant is clearer.  He has

conquered "the Dweller of the Threshold"--the hereditary enemy of his

race, and, though still exposed to ever-new dangers in his progress

towards Nirvana, he is flushed with victory, and with new confidence and

new powers to second it, can press onwards to perfection.

 

For, it must be remembered, that nature everywhere acts by Law, and that

the process of purification we have been describing in the visible

material body, also takes place in those which are interior, and not

visible to the scientist by modifications of the same process.  All is

on the change, and the metamorphoses of the more ethereal bodies

imitate, though in successively multiplied duration, the career of the

grosser, gaining an increasing wider range of relations with the

surrounding kosmos, till in Nirvana the most rarefied Individuality is

merged at last into the INFINITE TOTALITY.

 

From the above description of the process, it will be inferred why it is

that "Adepts" are so seldom seen in ordinary life; for, pari passu, with

the etherealization of their bodies and the development of their power,

grows an increasing distaste, and a so-to-speak, "contempt" for the

things of our ordinary mundane existence.  Like the fugitive who

successively casts away in his flight those articles which incommode his

progress, beginning with the heaviest, so the aspirant eluding "Death"

abandons all on which the latter can take hold.  In the progress of

Negation everything got rid of is a help.  As we said before, the adept

does not become "immortal" as the word is ordinarily understood. By or

about the time when the Death-limit of his race is passed he is actually

dead, in the ordinary sense, that is to say, he has relieved himself of

all or nearly all such material particles as would have necessitated in

disruption the agony of dying.  He has been dying gradually during the

whole period of his Initiation.  The catastrophe cannot happen twice

over.  He has only spread over a number of years the mild process of

dissolution which others endure from a brief moment to a few hours.  The

highest Adept is, in fact, dead to, and absolutely unconscious of, the

world;  he is oblivious of its pleasures, careless of its miseries, in

so far as sentimentalism goes, for the stern sense of DUTY never leaves

him blind to its very existence.  For the new ethereal senses opening to

wider spheres are to ours much in the relation of ours to the Infinitely

Little.  New desires and enjoyments, new dangers and new hindrances

arise, with new sensations and new perceptions;  and far away down in

the mist--both literally and metaphorically--is our dirty little earth

left below by those who have virtually "gone to join the gods."

 

And from this account too, it will be perceptible how foolish it is for

people to ask the Theosophist to "procure for them communication with

the highest Adepts."  It is with the utmost difficulty that one or two

can be induced, even by the throes of a world, to injure their own

progress by meddling with mundane affairs.  The ordinary reader will

say:  "This is not god-like. This is the acme of selfishness." .... But

let him realize that a very high Adept, undertaking to reform the world,

would necessarily have to once more submit to Incarnation.  And is the

result of all that have gone before in that line sufficiently

encouraging to prompt a renewal of the attempt?

 

A deep consideration of all that we have written, will also give the

Theosophists an idea of what they demand when they ask to be put in the

way of gaining practically "higher powers."  Well, there, as plainly as

words can put it, is the PATH .... can they tread it?

 

Nor must it be disguised that what to the ordinary mortal are unexpected

dangers, temptations and enemies also beset the way of the neophyte.

And that for no fanciful cause, but the simple reason that he is, in

fact, acquiring new senses, has yet no practice in their use, and has

never before seen the things he sees.  A man born blind suddenly endowed

with vision would not at once master the meaning of perspective, but

would, like a baby, imagine in one case, the moon to be within his

reach, and, in the other, grasp a live coal with the most reckless

confidence.

 

And what, it may be asked, is to recompense this abnegation of all the

pleasures of life, this cold surrender of all mundane interests, this

stretching forward to an unknown goal which seems ever more

unattainable?  For, unlike some of the anthropomorphic creeds, Occultism

offers to its votaries no eternally permanent heaven of material

pleasure, to be gained at once by one quick dash through the grave.  As

has, in fact, often been the case many would be prepared willingly to

die now for the sake of the paradise hereafter.  But Occultism gives no

such prospect of cheaply and immediately gained infinitude of pleasure,

wisdom and existence.  It only promises extensions of these, stretching

in successive arches obscured by successive veils, in an unbroken series

up the long vista which leads to NIRVANA.  And this too, qualified by

the necessity that new powers entail new responsibilities, and that the

capacity of increased pleasure entails the capacity of increased

sensibility to pain.  To this, the only answer that can be given is

two-fold:  (1st) the consciousness of Power is itself the most exquisite

of pleasures, and is unceasingly gratified in the progress onwards with

new means for its exercise and (2ndly) as has been already said--THIS is

the only road by which there is the faintest scientific likelihood that

"Death" can be avoided, perpetual memory secured, infinite wisdom

attained, and hence an immense helping of mankind made possible, once

that the adept has safely crossed the turning-point.  Physical as well

as metaphysical logic requires and endorses the fact that only by

gradual absorption into infinity can the Part become acquainted with the

Whole, and that that which is now something can only feel, know, and

enjoy EVERYTHING when lost in Absolute Totality in the vortex of that

Unalterable Circle wherein our Knowledge becomes Ignorance, and the

Everything itself is identified with the NOTHING.

 

 

 

 

Is the Desire to "Live" Selfish?

 

 

The passage "to live, to live, to live must be the unswerving resolve,"

occurring in the article on the Elixir of Life, is often quoted by

superficial and unsympathetic readers as an argument that the teachings

of occultism are the most concentrated form of selfishness.  In order to

determine whether the critics are right or wrong, the meaning of the

word "selfishness" must first be ascertained.

 

According to an established authority, selfishness is that "exclusive

regard to one's own interest or happiness;  that supreme self-love or

self-preference which leads a person to direct his purposes to the

advancement of his own interest, power, or happiness, without regarding

those of others."

 

In short, an absolutely selfish individual is one who cares for himself

and none else, or, in other words, one who is so strongly imbued with a

sense of the importance of his own personality that to him it is the

crown of all thoughts, desires, and aspirations, and beyond which lies

the perfect blank.  Now, can an occultist be then said to be "selfish"

when he desires to live in the sense in which that word is used by the

writer of the article on the Elixir of Life?  It has been said over and

over again that the ultimate end of every aspirant after occult

knowledge is Nirvana or Mukti, when the individual, freed from all

Mayavic Upadhi, becomes one with Paramatma, or the Son identifies

himself with the Father in Christian phraseology.  For that purpose,

every veil of illusion which creates a sense of personal isolation, a

feeling of separateness from THE ALL, must be torn asunder, or, in other

words, the aspirant must gradually discard all sense of selfishness with

which we are all more or less affected.  A study of the Law of Kosmic

Evolution teaches us that the higher the evolution, the more does it

tend towards Unity.  In fact, Unity is the ultimate possibility of

Nature, and those who through vanity and selfishness go against her

purposes, cannot but incur the punishment of annihilation.  The

occultist thus recognizes that unselfishness and a feeling of universal

philanthropy are the inherent laws of our being, and all he does is to

attempt to destroy the chains of selfishness forged upon us all by Maya.

The struggle then between Good and Evil, God and Satan, Suras and

Asuras, Devas and Daityas, which is mentioned in the sacred books of all

the nations and races, symbolizes the battle between unselfish and

selfish impulses, which takes place in a man, who tries to follow the

higher purposes of Nature, until the lower animal tendencies, created by

selfishness, are completely conquered, and the enemy thoroughly routed

and annihilated.  It has also been often put forth in various

Theosophical and other occult writings that the only difference between

an ordinary man who works along with Nature during the course of Kosmic

evolution and an occultist, is that the latter, by his superior

knowledge, adopts such methods of training and discipline as will hurry

on that process of evolution, and he thus reaches in a comparatively

short time the apex which the ordinary individual will take perhaps

billions of years to reach.  In short, in a few thousand years he

approaches that type of evolution which ordinary humanity attains in the

sixth or seventh Round of the Manvantara, i.e., cyclic progression.  It

is evident that an average man cannot become a MAHATMA in one life, or

rather in one incarnation.  Now those, who have studied the occult

teachings concerning Devachan and our after-states, will remember that

between two incarnations there is a considerable period of subjective

existence.  The greater the number of such Devachanic periods, the

greater is the number of years over which this evolution is extended.

The chief aim of the occultist is therefore to so control himself as to

be able to regulate his future states, and thereby gradually shorten the

duration of his Devachanic existence between two incarnations.  In the

course of his progress, there comes a time when, between one physical

death and his next rebirth, there is no Devachan but a kind of spiritual

sleep, the shock of death, having, so to say, stunned him into a state

of unconsciousness from which he gradually recovers to find himself

reborn, to continue his purpose.  The period of this sleep may vary from

twenty-five to two hundred years, depending upon the degree of his

advancement.  But even this period may be said to be a waste of time,

and hence all his exertions are directed to shorten its duration so as

to gradually come to a point when the passage from one state of

existence into another is almost imperceptible.  This is his last

incarnation, as it were, for the shock of death no more stuns him.  This

is the idea the writer of the article on the Elixir of Life means to

convey when he says:

 

By or about the time when the Death-limit of his race is passed he is

actually dead, in the ordinary sense, that is to say, he has relieved

himself of all or nearly all such material particles as would have

necessitated in disruption the agony of dying.  He has been dying

gradually during the whole period of his Initiation.  The catastrophe

cannot happen twice over, he has only spread over a number of years the

mild process of dissolution which others endure from a brief moment to a

few hours.  The highest Adept is, in fact, dead to, and absolutely

unconscious of, the World;  he is oblivious of its pleasures, careless

of its miseries, in so far as sentimentalism goes, for the stern sense

of Duty never leaves him blind to its very existence....

 

The process of the emission and attraction of atoms, which the occultist

controls, has been discussed at length in that article and in other

writings.  It is by these means that he gets rid gradually of all the

old gross particles of his body, substituting for them finer and more

ethereal ones, till at last the former sthula sarira is completely dead

and disintegrated, and he lives in a body entirely of his own creation,

suited to his work.  That body is essential to his purposes;  as the

Elixir of Life says:--

 

To do good, as in every thing else, a man most have time and materials

to Work with, and this is a necessary means to the acquirement of powers

by which infinitely more good can be done than without them.  When these

are once mastered, the opportunities to use them will arrive....

 

Giving the practical instructions for that purpose, the same paper

continues:--

 

The physical man must be rendered more ethereal and sensitive; the

mental man more penetrating and profound;  the moral man more

self-denying and philosophical.

 

Losing sight of the above important considerations, the following

passage is entirely misunderstood:--

 

And from this account too, it will be perceptible how foolish it is for

people to ask the Theosophist "to procure for them communication with

the highest Adepts."  It is with the utmost difficulty that one or two

can be induced, even by the throes of a world, to injure their own

progress by meddling with mundane affairs.  The ordinary reader will

say:  "This is not god-like. This is the acme of selfishness." ....But

let him realize that a very high Adept, undertaking to reform the world,

would necessarily have to once more submit to Incarnation.  And is the

result of all that have gone before in that line sufficiently

encouraging to prompt a renewal of the attempt?

 

Now, in condemning the above passage as inculcating selfishness,

superficial critics neglect many profound truths.  In the first place,

they forget the other extracts already quoted which impose self-denial

as a necessary condition of success, and which say that, with progress,

new senses and new powers are acquired with which infinitely more good

can be done than without them.  The more spiritual the Adept becomes the

less can he meddle with mundane gross affairs and the more he has to

confine himself to spiritual work.  It has been repeated, times out of

number, that the work on the spiritual plane is as superior to the work

on the intellectual plane as the latter is superior to that on the

physical plane.  The very high Adepts, therefore, do help humanity, but

only spiritually:  they are constitutionally incapable of meddling with

worldly affairs.  But this applies only to very high Adepts.  There are

various degrees of Adept-ship, and those of each degree work for

humanity on the planes to which they may have risen.  It is only the

chelas that can live in the world, until they rise to a certain degree.

And it is because the Adepts do care for the world that they make their

chelas live in and work for it, as many of those who study the subject

are aware.  Each cycle produces its own occultists capable of working

for the humanity of the time on all the different planes;  but when the

Adepts foresee that at a particular period humanity will he incapable of

producing occultists for work on particular planes, for such occasions

they do provide by either voluntarily giving up their further progress

and waiting until humanity reaches that period, or by refusing to enter

into Nirvana and submitting to re-incarnation so as to be ready for work

when the time comes.  And although the world may not be aware of the

fact, yet there are even now certain Adepts who have preferred to remain

in statu quo and refuse to take the higher degrees, for the benefit of

the future generations of humanity.  In short, as the Adepts work

harmoniously, since unity is the fundamental law of their being, they

have, as it were, made a division of labour, according to which each

works on the plane appropriate to himself for the spiritual elevation of

us all--and the process of longevity mentioned in the Elixir of Life is

only the means to the end which, far from being selfish, is the most

unselfish purpose for which a human being can labour.

 

(--H.P. Blavatsky)

 

 

 

 

Contemplation

 

 

A general misconception on this subject seems to prevail.  One confines

oneself for some time in a room, and passively gazes at one's nose, a

spot on the wall, or, perhaps, a crystal, under the impression that such

is the true form of contemplation enjoined by Raj Yoga.  Many fail to

realize that true occultism requires a physical, mental, moral and

spiritual development to run on parallel lines, and injure themselves,

physically and spiritually, by practice of what they falsely believe to

be Dhyan.  A few instances may be mentioned here with advantage, as a

warning to over-zealous students.

 

At Bareilly the writer met a member of the Theosophical Society from

Farrukhabad, who narrated his experiences and shed bitter tears of

repentance for his past follies--as he termed them.  It appears from his

account that fifteen or twenty years ago having read about contemplation

in the Bhagavad Gita, he undertook the practice of it, without a proper

comprehension of its esoteric meaning and carried it on for several

years.  At first he experienced a sense of pleasure, but simultaneously

he found he was gradually losing self-control;  until after a few years

he discovered, to his great bewilderment and sorrow, that he was no

longer his own master.  He felt his heart actually growing heavy, as

though a load had been placed on it.  He had no control over his

sensations the communication between the brain and the heart had become

as though interrupted.  As matters grew worse, in disgust he

discontinued his "contemplation."  This happened as long as seven years

ago;  and, although since then he has not felt worse, yet he could never

regain his original healthy state of mind and body.

 

Another case came under the writer's observation at Jubbulpore. The

gentleman concerned, after reading Patanjali and such other works, began

to sit for "contemplation."  After a short time he commenced seeing

abnormal sights and hearing musical bells, but neither over these

phenomena nor over his own sensations could he exercise any control.  He

could not produce these results at will, nor could he stop them when

they were occurring.  Numerous such examples may be cited.  While

penning these lines, the writer has on his table two letters upon this

subject, one from Moradabad and the other from Trichinopoly.  In short,

all this mischief is due to a misunderstanding of the significance of

contemplation as enjoined upon students by all the schools of Occult

Philosophy.  With a view to afford a glimpse of the Reality through the

dense veil that enshrouds the mysteries of this Science of Sciences, an

article, the Elixir of Life, was written.  Unfortunately, in too many

instances, the seed seems to have fallen upon barren ground.  Some of

its readers pin their faith to the following clause in that paper:--

Reasoning from the known to the unknown meditation must be practiced and

encouraged.

 

But, alas! their preconceptions have prevented them from comprehending

what is meant by meditation.  They forget that the meditation spoken of

"is the inexpressible yearning of the inner Man to 'go out towards the

infinite,' which in the olden time was the real meaning of adoration"--

as the next sentence shows.  A good deal of light would be thrown upon

this subject if the reader were to turn to an earlier part of the same

paper, and peruse attentively the following paragraphs:--

 

So, then, we have arrived at the point where we have determined--

literally, not metaphorically--to crack the outer shell known as the

mortal coil or body, and hatch out of it, clothed in our next.  This

'next' is not a spiritual, but only a more ethereal form.  Having by a

long training and preparation adapted it for a life in the atmosphere,

during which time we have gradually made the outward shell to die off

through a certain process .... we have to prepare for this physiological

transformation.

 

How are we to do it?  In the first place we have the actual, visible,

material body--Man, so called, though, in fact, but his outer shell--to

deal with.  Let us bear in mind that Science teaches us that in about

every seven years we change skin as effectually as any serpent;  and

this so gradually and imperceptibly that, had not science after years of

unremitting study and observation assured us of it, no one would have

had the slightest suspicion of the fact.... Hence, if a man, partially

flayed alive, may sometimes survive and be covered with a new skin, so

our astral, vital body .... may be made to harden its particles to the

atmospheric changes.  The whole secret is to succeed in evolving it out,

and separating it from the visible; and while its generally invisible

atoms proceed to concrete themselves into a compact mass, to gradually

get rid of the old particles of our visible frame so as to make them die

and disappear before the new set has had time to evolve and replace

them.... We can say no more.

 

A correct comprehension of the above scientific process will give a clue

to the esoteric meaning of meditation or contemplation.  Science teaches

us that man changes his physical body continually, and this change is so

gradual that it is almost imperceptible.  Why then should the case be

otherwise with the inner man?  The latter too is developing and changing

atoms at every moment.  And the attraction of these new sets of atoms

depends upon the Law of Affinity--the desires of the man drawing to his

bodily tenement only such particles as are necessary to give them

expression.

 

For Science shows that thought is dynamic, and the thought-force evolved

by nervous action expanding itself outwardly, must affect the molecular

relations of the physical man.  The inner men, however sublimated their

organism may be, are still composed of actual, not hypothetical,

particles, and are still subject to the law that an "action" has a

tendency to repeat itself;  a tendency to set up analogous action in the

grosser "shell" they are in contact with, and concealed within.--"The

Elixir of Life"

 

What is it the aspirant of Yog Vidya strives after if not to gain Mukti

by transferring himself gradually from the grosser to the next less

gross body, until all the veils of Maya being successively removed his

Atma becomes one with Paramatma?  Does he suppose that this grand result

can be achieved by a two or four hours' contemplation?  For the

remaining twenty or twenty-two hours that the devotee does not shut

himself up in his room for meditation is the process of the emission of

atoms and their replacement by others stopped?  If not, then how does he

mean to attract all this time only those suited to his end? From the

above remarks it is evident that just as the physical body requires

incessant attention to prevent the entrance of a disease, so also the

inner man requires an unremitting watch, so that no conscious or

unconscious thought may attract atoms unsuited to its progress.  This is

the real meaning of contemplation.  The prime factor in the guidance of

the thought is Will.

 

Without that, all else is useless.  And, to be efficient for the

purpose, it must be, not only a passing resolution of the moment, a

single fierce desire of short duration, but a settled and continued

strain, as nearly as can be continued and concentrated without one

single moment's remission.

 

The student would do well to take note of the italicized clause in the

above quotation.  He should also have it indelibly impressed upon his

mind that:

 

It is no use to fast as long as one requires food.... To get rid of the

inward desire is the essential thing, and to mimic the real thing

without it is barefaced hypocrisy and useless slavery.

 

Without realizing the significance of this most important fact, any one

who for a moment finds cause of disagreement with any one of his family,

or has his vanity wounded, or for a sentimental flash of the moment, or

for a selfish desire to utilize  the Divine power for gross purposes--at

once rushes into contemplation and dashes himself to pieces on the rock

dividing the known from the unknown.  Wallowing in the mire of

exotericism, he knows not what it is to live in the world and yet be not

of the world;  in other words, to guard self against self is an almost

incomprehensible axiom for the profane.  The Hindu ought to know better

from the life of Janaka, who, although a reigning monarch, was yet

styled Rajarshi and is said to have attained Nirvana. Hearing of his

widespread fame, a few sectarian bigots went to his court to test his

Yoga-power.  As soon as they entered the court-room, the king having

read their thoughts--a power which every chela attains at a certain

stage--gave secret instructions to his officials to have a particular

street in the city lined on both sides by dancing girls singing the must

voluptuous songs.  He then had some gharas (pots) filled with water up

to the brim so that the least shake would be likely to spill their

contents.  The wiseacres, each with a full ghara (pot) on his head, were

ordered to pass along the street, surrounded by soldiers with drawn

swords to be used against them if even so much as a drop of water were

allowed to run over.  The poor fellows having returned to the palace

after successfully passing the test, were asked by the King-Adept what

they had met with in the street they were made to go through.  With

great indignation they replied that the threat of being cut to pieces

had so much worked upon their minds that they thought of nothing but the

water on their heads, and the intensity of their attention did not

permit them to take cognizance of what was going on around them.  Then

Janaka told them that on the same principle they could easily understand

that, although being outwardly engaged in managing the affairs of his

State, he could, at the same time, be an Occultist.  He too, while in

the world, was not of the world.  In other words, his inward aspirations

had been leading him on continually to the goal in which his whole inner

self was concentrated.

 

Raj Yoga encourages no sham, requires no physical postures.  It has to

deal with the inner man whose sphere lies in the world of thought.  To

have the highest ideal placed before oneself and strive incessantly to

rise up to it, is the only true concentration recognized by Esoteric

Philosophy which deals with the inner world of noumena, not the outer

shell of phenomena.

 

The first requisite for it is thorough purity of heart.  Well might the

student of Occultism say with Zoroaster, that purity of thought, purity

of word, and purity of deed,--these are the essentials of one who would

rise above the ordinary level and join the "gods."  A cultivation of the

feeling of unselfish philanthropy is the path which has to be traversed

for that purpose.  For it is that alone which will lead to Universal

Love, the realization of which constitutes the progress towards

deliverance from the chains forged by Maya (illusion) around the Ego.

No student will attain this at once, but as our Venerated Mahatma says

in the "Occult World":--

 

The greater the progress towards deliverance, the less this will be the

case, until, to crown all, human and purely individual personal

feelings, blood-ties and friendship, patriotism and race predilection,

will all give way to become blended into one universal feeling, the only

true and holy, the only unselfish and eternal one, Love, an Immense Love

for Humanity as a whole.

 

In short, the individual is blended with the ALL.

 

Of course, contemplation, as usually understood, is not without its

minor advantages.  It develops one set of physical faculties as

gymnastics does the muscles.  For the purposes of physical mesmerism it

is good enough;  but it can in no way help the development of the

psychological faculties, as the thoughtful reader will perceive.  At the

same time, even for ordinary purposes, the practice can never be too

well guarded.  If, as some suppose, they have to be entirely passive and

lose themselves in the object before them, they should remember that, by

thus encouraging passivity, they, in fact, allow the development of

mediumistic faculties in themselves.  As was repeatedly stated--the

Adept and the Medium are the two Poles: while the former is intensely

active and thus able to control the elemental forces, the latter is

intensely passive and thus incurs the risk of falling a prey to the

caprice and malice of mischievous embryos of human beings, and the

elementaries.

 

It will be evident from the above that true meditation consists in the

"reasoning from the known to the unknown."  The "known" is the

phenomenal world, cognizable by our five senses.  And all that we see in

this manifested world are the effects, the causes of which are to be

sought after in the noumenal, the unmanifested, the "unknown world:"

this is to be accomplished by meditation, i.e., continued attention to

the subject.  Occultism does not depend upon one method, but employs

both the deductive and the inductive.  The student must first learn the

general axioms, which have sufficiently been laid down in the Elixir of

Life and other occult writings.  What the student has first to do is to

comprehend these axioms and, by employing the deductive method, to

proceed from universals to particulars.  He has then to reason from the

"known to the unknown," and see if the inductive method of proceeding

from particulars to universals supports those axioms.  This process

forms the primary stage of true contemplation.  The student must first

grasp the subject intellectually before he can hope to realize his

aspirations. When this is accomplished, then comes the next stage of

meditation, which is "the inexpressible yearning of the inner man to 'go

out towards the infinite.'"  Before any such yearning can be properly

directed, the goal must first be determined.  The higher stage, in fact,

consists in practically realizing what the first steps have placed

within one's comprehension.  In short, contemplation, in its true sense,

is to recognize the truth of Eliphas Levi's saying:--

 

To believe without knowing is weakness;  to believe, because one knows,

is power.

 

The Elixir of Life not only gives the preliminary steps in the ladder of

contemplation but also tells the reader how to realize the higher

stages.  It traces, by the process of contemplation as it were, the

relation of man, "the known," the manifested, the phenomenon, to "the

unknown," the unmanifested, the noumenon. It shows the student what

ideal to contemplate and how to rise up to it.  It places before him the

nature of the inner capacities of man and how to develop them.  To a

superficial reader, this may, perhaps, appear as the acme of

selfishness.  Reflection will, however, show the contrary to be the

case.  For it teaches the student that to comprehend the noumenal, he

must identify himself with Nature.  Instead of looking upon himself as

an isolated being, he must learn to look upon himself as a part of the

Integral Whole.  For, in the unmanifested world, it can be clearly

perceived that all is controlled by the "Law of Affinity," the

attraction of the one for the other.  There, all is Infinite Love,

understood in its true sense.

 

It may now not be out of place to recapitulate what has already been

said.  The first thing to be done is to study the axioms of Occultism

and work upon them by the deductive and the inductive methods, which is

real contemplation.  To turn this to a useful purpose, what is

theoretically comprehended must be practically realized.

 

--Damodar K. Mavalaukar

 

 

 

 

 

Chelas and Lay Chelas

 

 

A "chela" is a person who has offered himself to a master as a pupil to

learn practically the "hidden mysteries of Nature and the psychical

powers latent in man."  The master who accepts him is called in India a

Guru;  and the real Guru is always an adept in the Occult Science.  A

man of profound knowledge, exoteric and esoteric, especially the latter;

and one who has brought his carnal nature under the subjection of the

WILL;  who has developed in himself both the power (Siddhi) to control

the forces of Nature, and the capacity to probe her secrets by the help

of the formerly latent but now active powers of his being--this is the

real Guru.  To offer oneself as a candidate for Chelaship is easy

enough, to develop into an adept the most difficult task any man could

possibly undertake.  There are scores of "natural-born" poets,

mathematicians, mechanics, statesmen, &c.  But a natural-born adept is

something practically impossible.  For, though we do hear at very rare

intervals of one who has an extraordinary innate capacity for the

acquisition of occult knowledge and power, yet even he has to pass the

self-same tests and probations, and go through the self-same training as

any less endowed fellow aspirant.  In this matter it is most true that

there is no royal road by which favourites may travel.

 

For centuries the selection of Chelas--outside the hereditary group

within the gon-pa (temple)--has been made by the Himalayan Mahatmas

themselves from among the class--in Tibet, a considerable one as to

number--of natural mystics.  The only exceptions have been in the cases

of Western men like Fludd, Thomas Vaughan, Paracelsus, Pico di

Mirandolo, Count St. Germain, &c., whose temperament affinity to this

celestial science, more or less forced the distant Adepts to come into

personal relations with them, and enabled them to get such small (or

large) proportion of the whole truth as was possible under their social

surroundings.  From Book IV. of Kui-te, Chapter on "The Laws of

Upasanas," we learn that the qualifications expected in a Chela were:--

 

1. Perfect physical health;

 

2. Absolute mental and physical purity;

 

3. Unselfishness of purpose;  universal charity;  pity for all

animate beings;

 

4. Truthfulness and unswerving faith in the law of Karma, independent of

the intervention of any power in Nature:  a law whose course is not to

be obstructed by any agency, not to be caused to deviate by prayer or

propitiatory exoteric ceremonies;

 

5. A courage undaunted in every emergency, even by peril to life;

 

6. An intuitional perception of one's being the vehicle of the

manifested Avalokiteswara or Divine Atma (Spirit);

 

7. Calm indifference for, but a just appreciation of, everything that

constitutes the objective and transitory world, in its relation with,

and to, the invisible regions.

 

Such, at the least, must have been the recommendations of one aspiring

to perfect Chelaship.  With the sole exception of the first, which in

rare and exceptional cases might have been modified, each one of these

points has been invariably insisted upon, and all must have been more or

less developed in the inner nature by the Chela's unhelped exertions,

before he could be actually "put to the test."

 

When the self-evolving ascetic--whether in, or outside the active

world--has placed himself, according to his natural capacity, above,

hence made himself master of his (1) Sarira--body;  (2) Indriya--senses;

(3) Dosha--faults;  (4) Dukkha--pain;  and is ready to become one with

his Manas--mind;  Buddhi--intellection, or spiritual intelligence;  and

Atma--highest soul, i.e., spirit; when he is ready for this, and,

further, to recognize in Atma the highest ruler in the world of

perceptions, and in the will, the highest executive energy (power), then

may he, under the time-honoured rules, be taken in hand by one of the

Initiates.  He may then be shown the mysterious path at whose farther

end is obtained the unerring discernment of Phala, or the fruits of

causes produced, and given the means of reaching Apavarga--emancipation

from the misery of repeated births, pretya-bhava, in whose determination

the ignorant has no hand.

 

But since the advent of the Theosophical Society, one of whose arduous

tasks it is to re-awaken in the Aryan mind the dormant memory of the

existence of this science and of those transcendent human capabilities,

the rules of Chela selection have become slightly relaxed in one

respect.  Many members of the Society who would not have been otherwise

called to Chelaship became convinced by practical proof of the above

points, and rightly enough thinking that if other men had hitherto

reached the goal, they too, if inherently fitted, might reach it by

following the same path, importunately pressed to be taken as

candidates.  And as it would be an interference with Karma to deny them

the chance of at least beginning, they were given it.  The results have

been far from encouraging so far, and it is to show them the cause of

their failure as much as to warn others against rushing heedlessly upon

a similar fate, that the writing of the present article has been

ordered.  The candidates in question, though plainly warned against it

in advance, began wrong by selfishly looking to the future and losing

sight of the past.  They forgot that they had done nothing to deserve

the rare honour of selection, nothing which warranted their expecting

such a privilege;  that they could boast of none of the above enumerated

merits.  As men of the selfish, sensual world, whether married or

single, merchants, civilian or military employees, or members of the

learned professions, they had been to a school most calculated to

assimilate them to the animal nature, least so to develop their

spiritual potentialities.  Yet each and all had vanity enough to suppose

that their case would be made an exception to the law of countless

centuries, as though, indeed, in their person had been born to the world

a new Avatar!  All expected to have hidden things taught, extraordinary

powers given them, because--well, because they had joined the

Theosophical Society.  Some had sincerely resolved to amend their lives,

and give up their evil courses:  we must do them that justice, at all

events.

 

All were refused at first, Col. Olcott the President himself, to begin

with:  and he was not formally accepted as a Chela until he had proved

by more than a year's devoted labours and by a determination which

brooked no denial, that he might safely be tested.  Then from all sides

came complaints--from Hindus, who ought to have known better, as well as

from Europeans who, of course, were not in a condition to know anything

at all about the rules.  The cry was that unless at least a few

Theosophists were given the chance to try, the Society could not endure.

Every other noble and unselfish feature of our programme was ignored--a

man's duty to his neighbour, to his country, his duty to help,

enlighten, encourage and elevate those weaker and less favoured than he;

all were trampled out of sight in the insane rush for adeptship.  The

call for phenomena, phenomena, phenomena, resounded in every quarter,

and the Founders were impeded in their real work and teased

importunately to intercede with the Mahatmas, against whom the real

grievance lay, though their poor agents had to take all the buffets.  At

last, the word came from the higher authorities that a few of the most

urgent candidates should be taken at their word.  The result of the

experiment would perhaps show better than any amount of preaching what

Chelaship meant, and what are the consequences of selfishness and

temerity.  Each candidate was warned that be must wait for year in any

event, before his fitness could be established, and that he must pass

through a series of tests that would bring out all there was in him,

whether bad or good.  They were nearly all married men, and hence were

designated "Lay Chelas"--a term new in English, but having long had its

equivalent in Asiatic tongues.  A Lay Chela is but a man of the world

who affirms his desire to become wise in spiritual things.  Virtually,

every member of the Theosophical Society who subscribes to the second of

our three "Declared Objects" is such;  for though not of the number of

true Chelas, he has yet the possibility of becoming one, for he has

stepped across the boundary-line which separated him from the Mahatmas,

and has brought himself, as it were, under their notice.  In joining the

Society and binding himself to help along its work, he has pledged

himself to act in some degree in concert with those Mahatmas, at whose

behest the Society was organized, and under whose conditional protection

it remains. The joining is then, the introduction;  all the rest depends

entirely upon the member himself, and he need never expect the most

distant approach to the "favour" of one of our Mahatmas or any other

Mahatmas in the world--should the latter consent to become known--that

has not been fully earned by personal merit. The Mahatmas are the

servants, not the arbiters of the Law of Karma.

 

Lay-Chelaship confers no privilege upon any one except that of working

for merit under the observation of a Master.  And whether that Master be

or be not seen by the Chela makes no difference whatever as to the

result:  his good thought, words and deeds will bear their fruits, his

evil ones, theirs.  To boast of Lay Chelaship or make a parade of it, is

the surest way to reduce the relationship with the Guru to a mere empty

name, for it would be prima facie evidence of vanity and unfitness for

farther progress.  And for years we have been teaching everywhere the

maxim "First deserve, then desire" intimacy with the Mahatmas.

 

Now there is a terrible law operative in Nature, one which cannot be

altered, and whose operation clears up the apparent mystery of the

selection of certain "Chelas" who have turned out sorry specimens of

morality, these few years past.  Does the reader recall the old proverb,

"Let sleeping dogs lie?"  There is a world of occult meaning in it.  No

man or woman knows his or her moral strength until it is tried.

Thousands go through life very respectably, because they were never put

to the test.  This is a truism doubtless, but it is most pertinent to

the present case. One who undertakes to try for Chelaship by that very

act rouses and lashes to desperation every sleeping passion of his

animal nature.  For this is the commencement of a struggle for mastery

in which quarter is neither to be given nor taken.  It is, once for all,

"To be, or Not to be;"  to conquer, means Adept-ship: to fail, an

ignoble Martyrdom;  for to fall victim to lust, pride, avarice, vanity,

selfishness, cowardice, or any other of the lower propensities, is

indeed ignoble, if measured by the standard of true manhood.  The Chela

is not only called to face all the latent evil propensities of his

nature, but, in addition, the momentum of maleficent forces accumulated

by the community and nation to which he belongs.  For he is an integral

part of those aggregates, and what affects either the individual man or

the group (town or nation), reacts the one upon the other.  And in this

instance his struggle for goodness jars upon the whole body of badness

in his environment, and draws its fury upon him. If he is content to go

along with his neighbours and be almost as they are--perhaps a little

better or somewhat worse than the average--no one may give him a

thought.  But let it be known that he has been able to detect the hollow

mockery of social life, its hypocrisy, selfishness, sensuality, cupidity

and other bad features, and has determined to lift himself up to a

higher level, at once he is hated, and every bad, bigotted, or malicious

nature sends at him a current of opposing will-power.  If he is innately

strong he shakes it off, as the powerful swimmer dashes through the

current that would bear a weaker one away.  But in this moral battle, if

the Chela has one single hidden blemish--do what he may, it shall and

will be brought to light.  The varnish of conventionalities which

"civilization" overlays us all with must come off to the last coat, and

the inner self, naked and without the slightest veil to conceal its

reality, is exposed. The habits of society which hold men to a certain

degree under moral restraint, and compel them to pay tribute to virtue

by seeming to be good whether they are so or not--these habits are apt

to be all forgotten, these restraints to be all broken through under the

strain of Chelaship.  He is now in an atmosphere of illusions--Maya.

Vice puts on its most alluring face, and the tempting passions attract

the inexperienced aspirant to the depths of psychic debasement.  This is

not a case like that depicted by a great artist, where Satan is seen

playing a game of chess with a man upon the stake of his soul, while the

latter's good angel stands beside him to counsel and assist.  For the

strife is in this instance between the Chela's will and his carnal

nature, and Karma forbids that any angel or Guru should interfere until

the result is known.  With the vividness of poetic fancy Bulwer Lytton

has idealized it for us in his "Zanoni," a work which will ever be

prized by the occultist while in his "Strange Story" he has with equal

power shown the black side of occult research and its deadly perils.

Chelaship was defined, the other day, by a Mahatma as a "psychic

resolvent, which eats away all dross and leaves only the pure gold

behind." If the candidate has the latent lust for money, or political

chicanery, or materialistic scepticism, or vain display, or false

speaking, or cruelty, or sensual gratification of any kind the germ is

almost sure to sprout;  and so, on the other hand, as regards the noble

qualities of human nature.  The real man comes out.  Is it not the

height of folly, then, for any one to leave the smooth path of

commonplace life to scale the crags of Chelaship without some reasonable

feeling of certainty that he has the right stuff in him?  Well says the

Bible:  "Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall"--a text that

would-be Chelas should consider well before they rush headlong into the

fray!  It would have been well for some of our Lay Chelas if they had

thought twice before defying the tests.  We call to mind several sad

failures within a twelve-month.  One went wrong in the head, recanted

noble sentiments uttered but a few weeks previously, and became a member

of a religion he had just scornfully and unanswerably proven false.  A

second became a defaulter and absconded with his employer's money--the

latter also a Theosophist.  A third gave himself up to gross debauchery,

and confessed it, with ineffectual sobs and tears, to his chosen Guru.

A fourth got entangled with a person of the other sex and fell out with

his dearest and truest friends.  A fifth showed signs of mental

aberration and was brought into Court upon charges of discreditable

conduct.  A sixth shot himself to escape the consequences of

criminality, on the verge of detection!  And so we might go on and on.

All these were apparently sincere searchers after truth, and passed in

the world for respectable persons.  Externally, they were fairly

eligible as candidates for Chelaship, as appearances go;  but "within

all was rottenness and dead men's bones."  The world's varnish was so

thick as to hide the absence of the true gold underneath;  and the

"resolvent" doing its work, the candidate proved in each instance but a

gilded figure of moral dross, from circumference to core.

 

In what precedes we have, of course, dealt but with the failures among

Lay Chelas;  there have been partial successes too, and these are

passing gradually through the first stages of their probation.  Some are

making themselves useful to the Society and to the world in general by

good example and precept.  If they persist, well for them, well for us

all:  the odds are fearfully against them, but still "there is no

impossibility to him who Wills."  The difficulties in Chelaship will

never be less until human nature changes and a new order is evolved.

St. Paul (Rom. vii. 18,19) might have had a Chela in mind when he said

"to will is present with me;  but how to perform that which is good I

find not.  For the good I would I do not;  but the evil which I would

not, that I do."  And in the wise Kiratarjuniyam of Bharavi it is

written:--

 

     The enemies which rise within the body,

     Hard to be overcome--the evil passions--

     Should manfully be fought; who conquers these

     Is equal to the conqueror of worlds. (XI. 32.)

 

(--H.P. Blavatsky)

 

 

 

 

Ancient Opinions Upon Psychic Bodies

 

 

It must be confessed that modern Spiritualism falls very short of the

ideas formerly suggested by the sublime designation which it has

assumed.  Chiefly intent upon recognizing and putting forward the

phenomenal proofs of a future existence, it concerns itself little with

speculations on the distinction between matter and spirit, and rather

prides itself on having demolished Materialism without the aid of

metaphysics.  Perhaps a Platonist might say that the recognition of a

future existence is consistent with a very practical and even dogmatic

materialism, but it is rather to be feared that such a materialism as

this would not greatly disturb the spiritual or intellectual repose of

our modern phenomenalists.*  Given the consciousness with its

sensibilities safely housed in the psychic body which demonstrably

survives the physical carcase, and we are like men saved from shipwreck,

who are for the moment thankful and content, not giving thought whether

they are landed on a hospitable shore, or on a barren rock, or on an

island of cannibals.  It is not of course intended that this "hand to

mouth" immortality is sufficient for the many thoughtful minds whose

activity gives life and progress to the movement, but that it affords

the relief which most people feel when in an age of doubt they make the

discovery that they are undoubtedly to live again.  To the question "how

are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come?" modern

Spiritualism, with its empirical methods, is not adequate to reply.  Yet

long before Paul suggested it, it had the attention of the most

celebrated schools of philosophy, whose speculations on the subject,

however little they may seem to be verified, ought not to be without

interest to us, who, after all, are still in the infancy of a

spiritualist revival.

 

---------

* "I am afraid," says Thomas Taylor in his Introduction to the Phaedo,

"there are scarcely any at the present day who know that it is one thing

for the soul to be separated from the body, and another for the body to

be separated from the soul, and that the former is by no means a

necessary consequence of the latter."

-----------

 

It would not be necessary to premise, but for the frequency with which

the phrase occurs, that the "spiritual body" is a contradiction in

terms.  The office of body is to relate spirit to an objective world.

By Platonic writers it is usually termed okhema--"vehicle."  It is the

medium of action, and also of sensibility.  In this philosophy the

conception of Soul was not simply, as with us, the immaterial subject of

consciousness.  How warily the interpreter has to tread here, every one

knows who has dipped, even superficially, into the controversies among

Platonists themselves.  All admit the distinction between the rational

and the irrational part or principle, the latter including, first, the

sensibility, and secondly, the Plastic, or that lower which in obedience

to its sympathies enables the soul to attach itself to, and to organize

into a suitable body those substances of the universe to which it is

most congruous.  It is more difficult to determine whether Plato or his

principal followers, recognized in the rational soul or nous a distinct

and separable entity, that which is sometimes discriminated as "the

Spirit."  Dr. Henry More, no mean authority, repudiates this

interpretation.  "There can be nothing more monstrous," he says, "than

to make two souls in man, the one sensitive, the other rational, really

distinct from one another, and to give the name of Astral spirit to the

former, when there is in man no Astral spirit beside the Plastic of the

soul itself, which is always inseparable from that which is rational.

Nor upon any other account can it be called Astral, but as it is liable

to that corporeal temperament which proceeds from the stars, or rather

from any material causes in general, as not being yet sufficiently

united with the divine body--that vehicle of divine virtue or power."

So he maintains that the Kabalistic three souls--Nephesh, Ruach,

Neschamah--originate in a misunderstanding of the true Platonic

doctrine, which is that of a threefold "vital congruity."  These

correspond to the three degrees of bodily existence, or to the three

"vehicles," the terrestrial, the aerial, and the ethereal.  The latter

is the augoeides--the luciform vehicle of the purified soul whose

irrational part has been brought under complete subjection to the

rational.  The aerial is that in which the great majority of mankind

find themselves at the dissolution of the terrestrial body, and in which

the incomplete process of purification has to be undergone during long

ages of preparation for the soul's return to its primitive, ethereal

state.  For it must be remembered that the preexistence of souls is a

distinguishing tenet of this philosophy as of the Kabala.  The soul has

"sunk into matter." From its highest original state the revolt of its

irrational nature has awakened and developed successively its "vital

congruities" with the regions below, passing, by means of its "Plastic,"

first into the aerial and afterwards into the terrestrial condition.

Each of these regions teems also with an appropriate population which

never passes, like the human soul, from one to the other--"gods,"

"demons," and animals.*  As to duration, "the shortest of all is that of

the terrestrial vehicle.  In the aerial, the soul may inhabit, as they

define, many ages, and in the ethereal, for ever."

 

---------

* The allusion here is to those beings of the several kingdoms of the

elements which we Theosophists, following after the Kabalists, have

called the "Elementals."  They never become men.

--Ed. Theos.

---------

 

Speaking of the second body, Henry More says "the soul's astral vehicle

is of that tenuity that itself can as easily pass the smallest pores of

the body as the light does glass, or the lightning the scabbard of a

sword without tearing or scorching of it."  And again, "I shall make

bold to assert that the soul may live in an aerial vehicle as well as in

the ethereal, and that there are very few that arrive to that high

happiness as to acquire a celestial vehicle immediately upon their

quitting the terrestrial one;  that heavenly chariot necessarily

carrying us in triumph to the greatest happiness the soul of man is

capable of, which would arrive to all men indifferently, good or bad, if

the parting with this earthly body would suddenly mount us into the

heavenly.  When by a just Nemesis the souls of men that are not

heroically virtuous will find themselves restrained within the compass

of this caliginous air, as both Reason itself suggests, and the

Platonists have unanimously determined." Thus also the most

thorough-going, and probably the most deeply versed in the doctrines of

the master among modern Platonists, Thomas Taylor (Introduction.

Phaedo):--"After this our divine philosopher informs that the pure soul

will after death return to pure and eternal natures;  but that the

impure soul, in consequence of being imbued with terrene affections,

will be drawn down to a kindred nature, and be invested with a gross

vehicle capable of being seen by the corporeal eye.*  For while a

propensity to body remains in the soul, it causes her to attract a

certain vehicle to herself;  either of an aerial nature, or composed

from the spirit and vapours of her terrestrial body, or which is

recently collected from surrounding air;  for according to the arcana of

the Platonic philosophy, between an ethereal body, which is simple and

immaterial and is the eternal connate vehicle of the soul, and a terrene

body, which is material and composite, and of short duration, there is

an aerial body, which is material indeed, but simple and of a more

extended duration; and in this body the unpurified soul dwells for a

long time after its exit from hence, till this pneumatic vehicle being

dissolved, it is again invested with a composite body;  while on the

contrary the purified soul immediately ascends into the celestial

regions with its ethereal vehicle alone."

 

----------

* This is the Hindu theory of nearly every one of the Aryan

philosophies.--Ed. Theos.

----------

 

Always it is the disposition of the soul that determines the quality of

its body.  "However the soul be in itself affected," says Porphyry

(translated by Cudworth), "so does it always find a body suitable and

agreeable to its present disposition, and therefore to the purged soul

does naturally accrue a body that comes next to immateriality, that is,

an ethereal one."  And the same author, "The soul is never quite naked

of all body, but hath always some body or other joined with it, suitable

and agreeable to its present disposition (either a purer or impurer

one).  But that at its first quitting this gross earthly body, the

spirituous body which accompanieth it (as its vehicle) must needs go

away fouled and incrassated with the vapours and steams thereof, till

the soul afterwards by degrees purging itself, this becometh at length a

dry splendour, which hath no misty obscurity nor casteth any shadow."

Here it will be seen, we lose sight of the specific difference of the

two future vehicles--the ethereal is regarded as a sublimation of the

aerial.  This, however, is opposed to the general consensus of Plato's

commentators. Sometimes the ethereal body, or augoeides, is appropriated

to the rational soul, or spirit, which must then be considered as a

distinct entity, separable from the lower soul.  Philoponus, a Christian

writer, says, "that the Rational Soul, as to its energie, is separable

from all body, but the irrational part or life thereof is separable only

from this gross body, and not from all body whatsoever, but hath after

death a spirituous or airy body, in which it acteth--this I say is a

true opinion which shall afterwards be proved by us.... The irrational

life of the soul hath not all its being in this gross earthly body, but

remaineth after the soul's departure out of it, having for its vehicle

and subject the spirituous body, which itself is also compounded out of

the four elements, but receiveth its denomination from the predominant

part, to wit, Air, as this gross body of ours is called earthy from what

is most predominant therein."--Cudworth, "Intell. Syst."  From the same

source we extract the following:  "Wherefore these ancients say that

impure souls after their departure out of this body wander here up and

down for a certain space in their spirituous vaporous and airy body,

appearing about sepulchres and haunting their former habitation.  For

which cause there is great reason that we should take care of living

well, as also of abstaining from a fouler and grosser diet;  these

Ancients telling us likewise that this spirituous body of ours being

fouled and incrassated by evil diet, is apt to render the soul in this

life also more obnoxious to the disturbances of passions.  They further

add that there is something of the Plantal or Plastic life, also

exercised by the soul, in those spirituous or airy bodies after death;

they being nourished too, though not after the same manner, as those

gross earthy bodies of ours are here, but by vapours, and that not by

parts or organs, but throughout the whole of them (as sponges), they

imbibing everywhere those vapours. For which cause they who are wise

will in this life also take care of using a thinner and dryer diet, that

so that spirituous body (which we have also at this present time within

our proper body) may not be clogged and incrassed, but attenuated.  Over

and above which, those Ancients made use of catharms, or purgations to

the same end and purpose also.  For as this earthy body is washed by

water so is that spirituous body cleansed by cathartic vapours--some of

these vapours being nutritive, others purgative.  Moreover, these

Ancients further declared concerning this spirituous body that it was

not organized, but did the whole of it in every part throughout exercise

all functions of sense, the soul hearing, seeing and perceiving all

sensibles by it everywhere.  For which cause Aristotle himself affirmeth

in his Metaphysics that there is properly but one sense and one Sensory.

He by this one sensory meaneth the spirit, or subtle airy body, in which

the sensitive power doth all of it through the whole immediately

apprehend all variety of sensibles.  And if it be demanded to how it

comes to pass that this spirit becomes organized in sepulchres, and most

commonly of human form, but sometimes in the forms of other animals, to

this those Ancients replied that their appearing so frequently in human

form proceeded from their being incrassated with evil diet, and then, as

it were, stamped upon with the form of this exterior ambient body in

which they are, as crystal is formed and coloured like to those things

which it is fastened in, or reflects the image of them.  And that their

having sometimes other different forms proceedeth from the phantastic

power of the soul itself, which can at pleasure transform the spirituous

body into any shape.  For being airy, when it is condensed and fixed, it

becometh visible, and again invisible and vanishing out of sight when it

is expanded and rarified."  Proem in Arist. de Anima.  And Cudworth

says, "Though spirits or ghosts had certain supple bodies which they

could so far condense as to make them sometimes visible to men, yet is

it reasonable enough to think that they could not constipate or fix them

into such a firmness, grossness and solidity, as that of flesh and bone

is to continue therein, or at least not without such difficulty and pain

as would hinder them from attempting the same.  Notwithstanding which it

is not denied that they may possibly sometimes make use of other solid

bodies, moving and acting them, as in that famous story of Phlegons when

the body vanished not as other ghosts use to do, but was left a dead

carcase behind."

 

In all these speculations the Anima Mundi plays a conspicuous part.  It

is the source and principle of all animal souls, including the

irrational soul of man.  But in man, who would otherwise be merely

analogous to other terrestrial animals--this soul participates in a

higher principle, which tends to raise and convert it to itself.  To

comprehend the nature of this union or hypostasis it would be necessary

to have mastered the whole of Plato's philosophy as comprised in the

Parmenides and the Timaeus;  and he would dogmatize rashly who without

this arduous preparation should claim Plato as the champion of an

unconditional immortality.  Certainly in the Phaedo the dialogue

popularly supposed to contain all Plato's teaching on the subject--the

immortality allotted to the impure soul is of a very questionable

character, and we should rather infer from the account there given that

the human personality, at all events, is lost by successive immersions

into "matter."  The following passage from Plutarch (quoted by Madame

Blavatsky, "Isis Unveiled," vol. ii. p. 284) will at least demonstrate

the antiquity of notions which have recently been mistaken for fanciful

novelties.  "Every soul hath some portion of nous, reason, a man cannot

be a man without it;  but as much of each soul as is mixed with flesh

and appetite is changed, and through pain and pleasure becomes

irrational.  Every soul doth not mix herself after one sort;  some

plunge themselves into the body, and so in this life their whole frame

is corrupted by appetite and passion;  others are mixed as to some part,

but the purer part still remains without the body.  It is not drawn down

into the body, but it swims above, and touches the extremest part of the

man's head;  it is like a cord to hold up and direct the subsiding part

of the soul, as long as it proves obedient and is not overcome by the

appetites of the flesh.  The part that is plunged into the body is

called soul.  But the incorruptible part is called the nous, and the

vulgar think it is within them, as they likewise imagine the image

reflected from a glass to be in that glass.  But the more intelligent,

who know it to be without, call it a Daemon."  And in the same learned

work ("Isis Unveiled ") we have two Christian authorities, Irenaeus and

Origen, cited for like distinction between spirit and soul in such a

manner as to show that the former must necessarily be regarded as

separable from the latter.  In the distinction itself there is of course

no novelty for the most moderately well-informed.  It is insisted upon

in many modern works, among which may be mentioned Heard's "Trichotomy

of Man" and Green's "Spiritual Philosophy";  the latter being an

exposition of Coleridge's opinion on this and cognate subjects.  But the

difficulty of regarding the two principles as separable in fact as well

as in logic arises from the senses, if it is not the illusion of

personal identity.  That we are particle, and that one part only is

immortal, the non-metaphysical mind rejects with the indignation which

is always encountered by a proposition that is at once distasteful and

unintelligible.  Yet perhaps it is not a greater difficulty (if, indeed,

it is not the very same) than that hard saying which troubled Nicodemus,

and which has been the key-note of the mystical religious consciousness

ever since.  This, however, is too extensive and deep a question to be

treated in this paper, which has for its object chiefly to call

attention to the distinctions introduced by ancient thought into the

conception of body as the instrument or "vehicle" of soul.  That there

is a correspondence between the spiritual condition of man and the

medium of his objective activity every spiritualist will admit to be

probable, and it may well be that some light is thrown on future states

by the possibility or the manner of spirit communication with this one.

 

--C. C. Massey

 

 

 

 

The Nilgiri Sannyasis

 

 

I was told that Sannyasis were sometimes met with on a mountain called

Velly Mallai Hills, in the Coimbatore District, and trying to meet with

one, I determined to ascend this mountain.  I traveled up its steep

sides and arrived at an opening, narrow and low, into which I crept on

all fours.  Going up some twenty yards I reached a cave, into the

opening of which I thrust my head and shoulders.  I could see into it

clearly, but felt a cold wind on my face, as if there was some opening

or crevice--so I looked carefully, but could see nothing.  The room was

about twelve feet square.  I did not go into it.  I saw arranged round

its sides stones one cubit long, all placed upright.  I was much

disappointed at there being no Sannyasi, and came back as I went,

pushing myself backwards as there was no room to turn.  I was then told

Sannyasis had been met with in the dense sholas (thickets), and as my

work lay often in such places, I determined to prosecute my search, and

did so diligently, without, however, any success.

 

One day I contemplated a journey to Coimbatore on my own affairs, and

was walking up the road trying to make a bargain with a handy man whom I

desired to engage to carry me there;  but as we could not come to terms,

I parted with him and turned into the Lovedale Road at 6 P.M.  I had not

gone far when I met a man dressed like a Sannyasi, who stopped and spoke

to me.  He observed a ring on my finger and asked me to give it to him.

I said he was welcome to it, but inquired what he would give me in

return, he said, "I don't care particularly about it;  I would rather

have that flour and sugar in the bundle on your back."  "I will give you

that with pleasure," I said, and took down my bundle and gave it to him.

"Half is enough for me," he said;  but subsequently changing his mind

added, "now let me see what is in your bundle," pointing to my other

parcel.  "I can't give you that."  He said, "Why cannot you give me your

swami (family idol)?"  I said, "It is my swami, I will not part with it;

rather take my life."  On this he pressed me no more, but said, "Now you

had better go home."  I said, "I will not leave you."  "Oh you must," he

said, "you will die here of hunger."  "Never mind," I said, "I can but

die once."  "You have no clothes to protect you from the wind and rain;

you may meet with tigers," he said.  "I don't care," I replied.  "It is

given to man once to die.  What does it signify how he dies?"  When I

said this he took my hand and embraced me, and immediately I became

unconscious.  When I returned to consciousness, I found myself with the

Sannyasi in a place new to me on a hill, near a large rock and with a

big shola near.  I saw in the shola right in front of us, that there was

a pillar of fire, like a tree almost.  I asked the Sannyasi what was

that like a high fire.  "Oh," he said, "most likely a tree ignited by

some careless wood-cutters."

 

"No," I said, "it is not like any common fire--there is no smoke, nor

are there flames--and it's not lurid and red.  I want to go and see it."

"No, you must not do so, you cannot go near that fire and escape alive."

"Come with me then," I begged.  "No--I cannot," he said, "if you wish to

approach it, you must go alone and at your own risk;  that tree is the

tree of knowledge and from it flows the milk of life:  whoever drinks

this never hungers again."  Thereupon I regarded the tree with awe.

 

I next observed five Sannyasis approaching.  They came up and joined the

one with me, entered into talk, and finally pulled out a hookah and

began to smoke.  They asked me if I could smoke.  I said no.  One of

them said to me, let us see the swami in your bundle (here gives a

description of the same).  I said, "I cannot, I am not clean enough to

do so."  "Why not perform your ablutions in yonder stream?" they said.

"If you sprinkle water on your forehead that will suffice."  I went to

wash my hands and feet, and laved my head, and showed it to them.  Next

they disappeared.  "As it is very late, it is time you returned home,"

said my first friend.  "No," I said, "now I have found you I will not

leave you."  "No, no," he said, "you must go home.  You cannot leave the

world yet;  you are a father and a husband, and you must not neglect

your worldly duties.  Follow the footsteps of your late respected uncle;

he did not neglect his worldly affairs, though he cared for the

interests of his soul;  you must go, but I will meet you again when you

get your fortnightly holiday."  On this he embraced me, and I again

became unconscious. When I returned to myself, I found myself at the

bottom of Col. Jones' Coffee Plantation above Coonor on a path.  Here

the Sannyasi wished me farewell, and pointing to the high road below, he

said, "Now you will know your way home;"  but I would not part from him.

I said, "All this will appear a dream to me unless you will fix a day

and promise to meet me here again."  "I promise," he said.  "No, promise

me by an oath on the head of my idol."  Again he promised, and touched

the head of my idol.  "Be here," he said, "this day fortnight."  When

the day came I anxiously kept my engagement and went and sat on the

stone on the path.  I waited a long time in vain.  At last I said to

myself, "I am deceived, he is not coming, he has broken his oath"--and

with grief I made a poojah.  Hardly had these thoughts passed my mind,

than lo! he stood beside me.  "Ah, you doubt me," he said;  "why this

grief."  I fell at his feet and confessed I had doubted him and begged

his forgiveness.  He forgave and comforted me, and told me to keep in my

good ways and he would always help me;  and he told me and advised me

about all my private affairs without my telling him one word, and he

also gave me some medicines for a sick friend which I had promised to

ask for but had forgotten.  This medicine was given to my friend and he

is perfectly well now.

 

A verbatim translation of a Settlement Officer's statement to

 

--E.H. Morgan

 

 

 

 

Witchcraft on the Nilgiris

 

 

Having lived many years (30) on the Nilgiris, employing the various

tribes of the Hills on my estates, and speaking their languages, I have

had many opportunities of observing their manners and customs and the

frequent practice of Demonology and Witchcraft among them.  On the

slopes of the Nilgiris live several semi-wild people:  1st, the

"Curumbers," who frequently hire themselves out to neighbouring estates,

and are first-rate fellers of forest;  2nd, the "Tain" ("Honey

Curumbers"), who collect and live largely on honey and roots, and who do

not come into civilized parts;  3rd, the "Mulu" Curumbers, who are rare

on the slopes of the hills, but common in Wynaad lower down the plateau.

These use bows and arrows, are fond of hunting, and have frequently been

known to kill tigers, rushing in a body on their game and discharging

their arrows at a short distance.  In their eagerness they frequently

fall victims to this animal;  but they are supposed to possess a

controlling power over all wild animals, especially elephants and

tigers;  and the natives declare they have the power of assuming the

forms of various beasts.  Their aid is constantly invoked both by the

Curumbers first named, and by the natives generally, when wishing to be

revenged on an enemy.

 

Besides these varieties of Curumbers there are various other wild tribes

I do not now mention, as they are not concerned in what I have to

relate.

 

I had on my estate near Ootacamund a gang of young Badagas, some 30

young men, whom I had had in my service since they were children, and

who had become most useful handy fellows.  From week to week I missed

one or another of them, and on inquiry was told they had been sick and

were dead!

 

One market-day I met the Moneghar of the village to which my gang

belonged and some of his men, returning home laden with their purchases.

The moment he saw me he stopped, and coming up to me, said, "Mother, I

am in great sorrow and trouble, tell me what I can do!"  "Why, what is

wrong?" I asked.  "All my young men are dying, and I cannot help them,

nor prevent it;  they are under a spell of the wicked Curumbers who are

killing them, and I am powerless."  "Pray explain," I said;  "why do the

Curumbers behave in this way, and what do they do to your people?"  "Oh,

Madam, they are vile extortioners, always asking for money;  we have

given and given till we have no more to give.  I told them we had no

more money and then they said,--All right--as you please;  we shall see.

Surely as they say this, we know what will follow--at night when we are

all asleep, we wake up suddenly and see a Curumber standing in our

midst, in the middle of the room occupied by the young men."  "Why do

you not close and bolt your doors securely?" I interrupted.  "What is

the use of bolts and bars to them? they come through stone walls.... Our

doors were secure, but nothing can keep out a Curumber.  He points his

finger at Mada, at Kurira, at Jogie--he utters no word, and as we look

at him he vanishes!  In a few days these three young men sicken, a low

fever consumes them, their stomachs swell, they die.  Eighteen young

men, the flower of my village, have died thus this year.  These effects

always follow the visit of a Curumber at night."  "Why not complain to

the Government?" I said.  "Ah, no use, who will catch them?"  "Then give

them the 200 rupees they ask this once on a solemn promise that they

exact no more"  "I suppose we must find the money somewhere," he said,

turning sorrowfully away.

 

A Mr. K---is the owner of a coffee estate near this, and like many

other planters employs Burghers.  On one occasion he went down the

slopes of the hills after bison and other large game, taking some seven

or eight Burghers with him as gun carriers (besides other things

necessary in jungle-walking--axes to clear the way, knives and ropes,

&c.).  He found and severely wounded a fine elephant with tusks.

Wishing to secure these, he proposed following up his quarry, but could

not induce his Burghers to go deeper and further into the forests;  they

feared to meet the "Mula Curumbers" who lived thereabouts.  For long he

argued in vain, at last by dint of threats and promises he induced them

to proceed, and as they met no one, their fears were allayed and they

grew bolder, when suddenly coming on the elephant lying dead (oh, horror

to them!), the beast was surrounded by a party of Mulu Curumbers busily

engaged in cutting out the tusks, one of which they had already

disengaged!  The affrighted Burghers fell back, and nothing Mr. K---

could do or say would induce them to approach the elephant, which the

Curumbers stoutly declared was theirs.  They had killed him they said.

They had very likely met him staggering under his wound and had finished

him off.  Mr. K---was not likely to give up his game in this fashion.

So walking threateningly to the Curumbers he compelled them to retire,

and called to his Burghers at the same time.  The Curumbers only said,

"Just you DARE to touch that elephant," and retired.  Mr. K---thereupon

cut out the remaining tusk himself, and slinging both on a pole with no

little trouble, made his men carry them. He took all the blame on

himself, showed them that they did not touch them, and finally declared

he would stay there all night rather than lose the tusks.  The idea of a

night near the Mulu Curumbers was too much for the fears of the

Burghers, and they finally took up the pole and tusks and walked home.

From that day those men, all but one who probably carried the gun,

sickened, walked about like spectres, doomed, pale and ghastly, and

before the month was out all were dead men, with the one exception!

 

A few months ago, at the village of Ebanaud, a few miles from this, a

fearful tragedy was enacted.  The Moneghar or headman's child was sick

unto death.  This, following on several recent deaths, was attributed to

the evil influences of a village of Curumbers hard by.  The Burghers

determined on the destruction of every soul of them.  They procured the

assistance of a Toda, as they invariably do on such occasions, as

without one the Curumbers are supposed to be invulnerable.  They

proceeded to the Curumber village at night and set their huts on fire,

and as the miserable inmates attempted to escape, flung them back into

the flames or knocked them down with clubs.  In the confusion one old

woman escaped unobserved into the adjacent bushes.  Next morning she

gave notice to the authorities, and identified seven Burghers, among

whom was the Moneghar or headman, and one Toda. As the murderers of her

people they were all brought to trial in the Courts here,--except the

headman, who died before he could be brought in--and were all sentenced

and duly executed, that is, three Burghers and the Toda, who were proved

principals in the murders.

 

Two years ago an almost identical occurrence took place at Kotaghery,

with exactly similar results, but without the punishment entailed having

any deterrent effect.  They pleaded "justification," as witchcraft had

been practiced on them.  But our Government ignores all occult dealings

and will not believe in the dread power in the land.  They deal very

differently with these matters in Russia, where, in a recent trial of a

similar nature, the witchcraft was admitted as an extenuating

circumstance and the culprits who had burnt a witch were all acquitted.

All natives of whatever caste are well aware of these terrible powers

and too often do they avail themselves of them--much oftener than any

one has an idea of.  One day as I was riding along I came upon a strange

and ghastly object--a basket containing the bloody head of a black

sheep, a cocoanut, 10 rupees in money, some rice and flowers.  These

smaller items I did not see, not caring to examine any closer;  but I

was told by some natives that those articles were to be found in the

basket. The basket was placed at the apex of a triangle formed by three

fine threads tied to three small sticks, so placed that any one

approaching from the roads on either side had to stumble over the

threads and receive the full effects of the deadly "Soonium" as the

natives call it.  On inquiry I learnt that it was usual to prepare such

a "Soonium" when one lay sick unto death;  as throwing it on another was

the only means of rescuing the sick one, and woe to the unfortunate who

broke a thread by stumbling over it!

 

--E.H. Morgan

 

 

 

 

Shamanism and Witchcraft Amongst the Kolarian Tribes

 

 

Having resided for some years amongst the Mimdas and Hos of Singbhoom,

and Chutia Nagpur, my attention was drawn at times to customs differing

a good deal in some ways, but having an evident affinity to those

related of the Nilghiri "Curumbers" in Mrs. Morgan's article.  I do not

mean to say that the practices I am about to mention are confined simply

to the Kolarian tribes, as I am aware both Oraons (a Dravidian tribe),

and the different Hindu castes living side by side with the Kols, count

many noted wizards among their number;  but what little I have come to

know of these curious customs, I have learnt among the Mimdas and Hos,

some of the most celebrated practitioners among them being Christian

converts.  The people themselves say, that these practices are peculiar

to their race, and not learnt from the Hindu invaders of their plateau;

but I am inclined to think that some, at least, of the operations have a

strong savour of the Tantric black magic about them, though practiced by

people who are often entirely ignorant of any Hindu language.

 

These remarks must he supplemented by a short sketch of Kol ideas of

worship.  They have nothing that I have either seen or heard of in the

shape of an image, but their periodical offerings are made to a number

of elemental spirits, and they assign a genie to every rock or tree in

the country, whom they do not consider altogether malignant, but who, if

not duly "fed" or propitiated, may become so.

 

The Singbonga (lit., sun or light spirit) is the chief;  Buru Bonga

(spirit of the hills), and the Ikhir Bonga (spirit of the deep), come

next.  After these come the Darha, of which each family has its own, and

they may be considered in the same light as Lares and Penates.  But

every threshing, flour and oil mill, has its spirit, who must be duly

fed, else evil result may be expected.  Their great festival (the Karam)

is in honour of Singbonga and his assistants;  the opening words of the

priests' speech on that occasion, sufficiently indicate that they

consider Singbonga, the creator of men and things.  Munure Singbonga

manokoa luekidkoa (In the beginning Singbonga made men).

 

Each village has its Sarna or sacred grove, where the hereditary priest

from time to time performs sacrifices, to keep things prosperous;  but

this only relates to spirits actually connected with the village, the

three greater spirits mentioned, being considered general, are only fed

at intervals of three or more years, and always on a public road or

other public place, and once every ten years a human being was (and as

some will tell you is sacrificed to keep the whole community of spirits

in good train.)  The Pahans, or village priests, are regular servants of

the spirits, and the najo, deona and bhagats are people who in some way

are supposed to obtain an influence or command over them.  The first and

lowest grade of these adepts, called najos (which may be translated as

practitioners of witchcraft pure and simple), are frequently women.

They are accused, like the "Mula Curumbers," of demanding quantities of

grain or loans of money, &c., from people, and when these demands are

refused, they go away with a remark to the effect, "that you have lots

of cattle and grain just now, but we'll see what they are like after a

month or two."  Then probably the cattle of the bewitched person will

get some disease, and several of them die, or some person of his family

will become ill or get hurt in some unaccountable way. Till at last,

thoroughly frightened, the afflicted person takes a little uncooked rice

and goes to a deona or mati (as he is called in the different

vernaculars of the province)--the grade immediately above najo in

knowledge--and promising him a reward if he will assist him, requests

his aid;  if the deona accedes to the request, the proceedings are as

follows.  The deona taking the oil brought, lights a small lamp and

seats himself beside it with the rice in a surpa (winnower) in his

hands.  After looking intently at the lamp flame for a few minutes, he

begins to sing a sort of chant of invocation in which all the spirits

are named, and at the name of each spirit a few grains of rice are

thrown into the lamp.  When the flame at any particular name gives a

jump and flares up high, the spirit concerned in the mischief is

indicated.  Then the deona takes a small portion of the rice wrapped up

in a sal (Shorea robusta) leaf and proceeds to the nearest new white-ant

nest from which he cuts the top off and lays the little bundle, half in

and half out of the cavity. Having retired, he returns in about an hour

to see if the rice is consumed, and according to the rapidity with which

it is eaten he predicts the sacrifice which will appease the spirit.

This ranges from a fowl to a buffalo, but whatever it may include, the

pouring out of blood is an essential.  It must be noted, however, that

the mati never tells who the najo is who has excited the malignity of

the spirit.

 

But the most important and lucrative part of a deona's business is the

casting out of evil spirits, which operation is known variously as ashab

and langhan.  The sign of obsession is generally some mental alienation

accompanied (in bad cases) by a combined trembling and restlessness of

limbs, or an unaccountable swelling up of the body.  Whatever the

symptoms may be the mode of cure appears to be much the same.  On such

symptoms declaring themselves, the deona is brought to the house and is

in the presence of the sick man and his friends provided with some rice

in a surpa, some oil, a little vermilion, and the deona produces from

his own person a little powdered sulphur and an iron tube about four

inches long and two tikli.*  Before the proceedings begin all the things

mentioned are touched with vermilion, a small quantity of which is also

mixed with the rice.  Three or four grains of rice and one of the tikli

being put into the tube, a lamp is then lighted beside the sick man and

the deona begins his chant, throwing grains of rice at each name, and

when the flame flares up, a little of the powdered sulphur is thrown

into the lamp and a little on the sick man, who thereupon becomes

convulsed, is shaken all over and talks deliriously, the deona's chant

growing louder all the while.  Suddenly the convulsions and the chant

cease, and the deona carefully takes up a little of the sulphur off the

man's body and puts into the tube, which he then seals with the second

tikli.  The deona and one of the man's friends then leave the hut,

taking the iron tube and rice with them, the spirit being now supposed

out of the man and bottled up in the iron tube.  They hurry across

country until they leave the hut some miles behind.  Then they go to the

edge of some tank or river, to some place they know to be frequented by

people for the purposes of bathing, &c., where, after some further

ceremony, the iron is stuck into the ground and left there.  This is

done with the benevolent intention that the spirit may transfer its

attentions to the unfortunate person who may happen to touch it while

bathing.  I am told the spirit in this case usually chooses a young and

healthy person.  Should the deona think the spirit has not been able to

suit itself with a new receptacle, he repairs to where a bazaar is

taking place and there (after some ceremony) he mixes with the crowd,

and taking a grain of the reddened rice jerks it with his forefinger and

thumb in such a way that without attracting attention it falls on the

person or clothes of some.  This is done several times to make certain.

Then the deona declares he has done his work, and is usually treated to

the best dinner the sick man's friends can afford.  It is said that the

person to whom the spirit by either of these methods is transferred may

not be affected for weeks or even months.  But some fine day while he is

at his work, he will suddenly stop, wheel round two or three times on

his heels and fall down more or less convulsed, from that time forward

he will begin to be troubled in the same way as his dis-obsessed

predecessor was.

 

--------

* Tikli is a circular piece of gilt paper which is stuck on between the

eyebrows of the women of the Province as ornament.

--------

 

Having thus given some account of the deona, we now come to the bhagat,

called by the Hindus sokha and sivnath.  This is the highest grade of

all, and, as I ought to have mentioned before, the 'ilm (knowledge) of

both the deona and bhagat grades is only to be learned by becoming a

regular chela of a practitioner;  but I am given to understand that the

final initiation is much hastened by a seasonable liberality on the part

of the chela. During the initiation of the sokha certain ceremonies are

performed at night by aid of a human corpse, this is one of the things

which has led me to think that this part at least of these practices is

connected with Tantric black magic.

 

The bhagat performs two distinct functions:  (1st), a kind of divination

called bhao (the same in Hindi), and (2nd), a kind of Shamanism called

darasta in Hindi, and bharotan in Horokaji, which, however, is resorted

to only on very grave occasions--as, for instance, when several families

think they are bewitched at one time and by the same najo.

 

The bhao is performed as follows:--The person having some query to

propound, makes a small dish out of a sal leaf and puts in it a little

uncooked rice and a few pice;  he then proceeds to the bhagat and lays

before him the leaf and its contents, propounding at the same time his

query.  The bhagat then directs him to go out and gather two golaichi

(varieties of Posinia) flowers (such practitioners usually having a

golaichi tree close to their abodes);  after the flowers are brought the

bhagat seats himself with the rice close to the inquirer, and after some

consideration selects one of the flowers, and holding it by the stalk at

about a foot from his eyes in his left hand twirls it between his thumb

and fingers, occasionally with his right hand dropping on it a grain or

two of rice.*  In a few minutes his eyes close and he begins to talk--

usually about things having nothing to do with the question in hand, but

after a few minutes of this, he suddenly yells out an answer to the

question, and without another word retires.  The inquirer takes his

meaning as he can from the answer, which, I believe, is always

ambiguous.

 

---------

* This is the process by which the bhagat mesmerizes himself.

---------

 

The bharotan as I have above remarked is only resorted to when a matter

of grave import has to be inquired about;  the bhagat makes a high

charge for a seance of this description.  We will fancy that three or

four families in a village consider themselves bewitched by a najo, and

they resolve to have recourse to a bhagat to find out who the witch is;

with this view a day is fixed on, and two delegates are procured from

each of five neighbouring villages, who accompany the afflicted people

to the house of the bhagat, taking with them a dali or offering,

consisting of vegetables, which on arrival is formally presented to him.

Two delegates are posted at each of the four points of the compass, and

the other two sent themselves with the afflicted parties to the right of

the bhagat, who occupies the centre of the apartment with four or five

chelas, a clear space being reserved on the left.  One chela then brings

a small earthenware-pot full of lighted charcoal, which is set before

the bhagat with a pile of mango wood chips and a ball composed of dhunia

(resin of Shorea robusta), gur (treacle), and ghee (clarified butter),

and possibly other ingredients.  The bhagat's sole attire consists of a

scanty lenguti (waist-cloth), a necklace of the large wooden beads such

as are usually worn by fakeers, and several garlands of golaichi flowers

round his neck, his hair being unusually long and matted.  Beside him

stuck in the ground is his staff.  One chela stands over the firepot

with a bamboo-mat fan in his hand, another takes charge of the pile of

chips, and a third of the ball of composition, and one or two others

seat themselves behind the bhagat, with drums and other musical

instruments in their hands.  All being in readiness, the afflicted ones

are requested to state their grievance.  This they do, and pray the

bhagat to call before him the najo, who has stirred up the spirits to

afflict them, in order that he may be punished.  The bhagat then gives a

sign to his chelas, those behind him raise a furious din with their

instruments, the fire is fed with chips, and a bit of the composition is

put on it from time to time, producing a volume of thick greyish-blue

smoke; this is carefully fanned over, and towards the bhagat, who, when

well wrapped in smoke, closes his eyes and quietly swaying his body

begins a low chant.  The chant gradually becomes louder and the sway of

his body more pronounced, until he works himself into a state of

complete frenzy.  Then with his body actually quivering, and his head

rapidly working about from side to side, he sings in a loud voice how a

certain najo (whom he names) had asked money of those people and was

refused, and how he stirred up certain spirits (whom he also names) to

hurt them, how they killed so and so's bullocks, some one else's sheep,

and caused another's child to fall ill.  Then he begins to call on the

najo to come and answer for his doings, and in doing so rises to his

feet--still commanding the najo to appear;  meanwhile he reels about;

then falls on the ground and is quite still except for an occasional

whine, and a muttered, "I see him!"  "He is coming!" This state may last

for an hour or more till at last the bhagat sits up and announces the

najo has come;  as he says so, a man, apparently mad with drink, rushes

in and falls with his head towards the bhagat moaning and making a sort

of snorting as if half stifled.  In this person the bewitched parties

often recognize a neighbour and sometimes even a relation, but whoever

he may be they have bound themselves to punish him.  The bhagat then

speaks to him and tells him to confess, at the same time threatening

him, in case of refusal, with his staff.  He then confesses in a

half-stupefied manner, and his confession tallies with what the bhagat

has told in his frenzy.  The najo is then dismissed and runs out of the

house in the same hurry as he came in.  The delegates then hold a

council at which the najo usually is sentenced to a fine--often heavy

enough to ruin him--and expelled from his village.  Before the British

rule the convicted najo seldom escaped with his life, and during the

mutiny time, when no Englishmen were about, the Singbhoom Hos paid off a

large number of old scores of this sort.  For record of which, see

"Statistical Account of Bengal," vol. xvii. p. 52.

 

In conclusion I have merely to add that I have derived this information

from people who have been actually concerned in these occurrences, and

among others a man belonging to a village of my own, who was convicted

and expelled from the village with the loss of all his movable property,

and one of his victims, a relation of his, sat by me when the above was

being written.

 

--E.D. Ewen

 

 

 

 

Mahatmas and Chelas

 

 

A Mahatma is an individual who, by special training and education, has

evolved those higher faculties, and has attained that spiritual

knowledge, which ordinary humanity will acquire after passing through

numberless series of re-incarnations during the process of cosmic

evolution, provided, of course, that they do not go, in the meanwhile,

against the purposes of Nature and thus bring on their own annihilation.

This process of the self-evolution of the MAHATMA extends over a number

of "incarnations," although, comparatively speaking, they are very few.

Now, what is it that incarnates?  The occult doctrine, so far as it is

given out, shows that the first three principles die more or less with

what is called the physical death.  The fourth principle, together with

the lower portions of the fifth, in which reside the animal

propensities, has Kama Loka for its abode, where it suffers the throes

of disintegration in proportion to the intensity of those lower desires;

while it is the higher Manas, the pure man, which is associated with the

sixth and seventh principles, that goes into Devachan to enjoy there the

effects of its good Karma, and then to be reincarnated as a higher

personality.  Now an entity that is passing through the occult training

in its successive births, gradually has less and less (in each

incarnation) of that lower Manas until there arrives a time when its

whole Manas, being of an entirely elevated character, is centred in the

individuality, when such a person may be said to have become a MAHATMA.

At the time of his physical death, all the lower four principles perish

without any suffering, for these are, in fact, to him like a piece of

wearing apparel which he puts on and off at will.  The real MAHATMA is

then not his physical body but that higher Manas which is inseparably

linked to the Atma and its vehicle (the sixth principle)--a union

effected by him in a comparatively very short period by passing through

the process of self-evolution laid down by Occult Philosophy.  When

therefore, people express a desire to "see a MAHATMA," they really do

not seem to understand what it is they ask for.  How can they, with

their physical eyes, hope to see that which transcends that sight?  Is

it the body--a mere shell or mask--they crave or hunt after?  And

supposing they see the body of a MAHATMA, how can they know that behind

that mask is concealed an exalted entity?  By what standard are they to

judge whether the Maya before them reflects the image of a true MAHATMA

or not?  And who will say that the physical is not a Maya? Higher things

can be perceived only by a sense pertaining to those higher things;

whoever therefore wants to see the real MAHATMA, must use his

intellectual sight.  He must so elevate his Manas that its perception

will be clear and all mists created by Maya be dispelled.  His vision

will then be bright and he will see the MAHATMA wherever he may be, for,

being merged into the sixth and the seventh principles, which know no

distance, the MAHATMA may be said to be everywhere.  But, at the same

time, just as we may be standing on a mountain top and have within our

sight the whole plain, and yet not be cognizant of any particular tree

or spot, because from that elevated position all below is nearly

identical, and as our attention may be drawn to something which may be

dissimilar to its surroundings--in the same manner, although the whole

of humanity is within the mental vision of the MAHATMA, he cannot be

expected to take special note of every human being, unless that being by

his special acts draws particular attention to himself.  The highest

interest of humanity, as a whole, is the MAHATMA's special concern, for

he has identified himself with that Universal Soul which runs through

Humanity;  and to draw his attention one must do so through that Soul.

This perception of the Manas may be called "faith" which should not be

confounded with blind belief.  "Blind faith" is an expression sometimes

used to indicate belief without perception or understanding;  while the

true perception of the Manas is that enlightened belief which is the

real meaning of the word "faith."  This belief should at the same time

be accompanied by knowledge, i.e., experience, for "true knowledge

brings with it faith."  Faith is the perception of the Manas (the fifth

principle), while knowledge, in the true sense of the term, is the

capacity of the Intellect, i.e., it is spiritual perception. In short,

the individuality of man, composed of his higher Manas, the sixth and

the seventh principle, should work as a unity, and then only can it

obtain "divine wisdom," for divine things can be sensed only by divine

faculties.  Thus a chela should be actuated solely by a desire to

understand the operations of the Law of Cosmic Evolution, so as to be

able to work in conscious and harmonious accord with Nature.

 

--Anon.

 

 

 

 

The Brahmanical Thread

 

 

I.  The general term for the investiture of this thread is Upanayana;

and the invested is called Upanita, which signifies brought or drawn

near (to one's Guru), i.e., the thread is the symbol of the wearer's

condition.

 

II.  One of the names of this thread is Yajna-Sutra.  Yajna means

Brahma, or the Supreme Spirit, and Sutra the thread, or tie.

Collectively, the compound word signifies that which ties a man to his

spirit or god.  It consists of three yarns twisted into one thread, and

three of such threads formed and knotted into a circle.  Every

Theosophist knows what a circle signifies and it need not be repeated

here.  He will easily understand the rest and the relation they have to

mystic initiation.  The yarns signify the great principle of "three in

one, and one in three," thus:--The first trinity consists of Atma which

comprises the three attributes of Manas, Buddhi, and Ahankara (the mind,

the intelligence, and the egotism).  The Manas again, has the three

qualities of Satva, Raja, and Tama (goodness, foulness, and darkness).

Buddhi has the three attributes of Pratyaksha, Upamiti and Anumiti

(perception, analogy, and inference). Ahankara also has three

attributes, viz., Jnata, Jneya, and Jnan (the knower, the known, and the

knowledge).

 

III.  Another name of the sacred thread is Tri-dandi.  Tri means three,

and Danda, chastisement, correction, or conquest.  This reminds the

holder of the three great "corrections" or conquests he has to

accomplish.  These are:--(1) the Vakya Sanyama;*  (2) the Manas Sanyama;

and (3) the Indriya (or Deha) Sanyama. Vakya is speech, Manas, mind, and

Deha (literally, body) or Indriya, is the senses.  The three conquests

therefore mean the control over one's speech, thought, and action.

 

--------

* Danda and Sanyama are synonymous terms.--A.S.

---------

 

This thread is also the reminder to the man of his secular duties,

and its material varies, in consequence, according to the occupation

of the wearer.  Thus, while the thread of the Brahmans is made of

pure cotton, that of the Kshatriyas (the warriors) is composed of

flax--the bow-string material;  and that of Vaishyas (the traders and

cattle-breeders), of wool.  From this it is not to be inferred that caste

was originally meant to be hereditary. In the ancient times, it depended

on the qualities of the man. Irrespective of the caste of his parents, a

man could, according to his merit or otherwise, raise or lower himself

from one caste to another;  and instances are not wanting in which a man

has elevated himself to the position of the highest Brahman (such as

Vishvamitra Rishi, Parasara, Vyasa, Satyakam, and others) from the very

lowest of the four castes.  The sayings of Yudhishthira on this subject,

in reply to the questions of the great serpent, in the Arannya Parva of

the Maha-Bharata, and of Manu, on the same point, are well known and

need nothing more than bare reference.  Both Manu and Maha-Bharata--the

fulcrums of Hinduism--distinctly affirm that a man can translate

himself from one caste to another by his merit, irrespective of his

parentage.

 

The day is fast approaching when the so-called Brahmans will have to

show cause, before the tribunal of the Aryan Rishis, why they should not

be divested of the thread which they do not at all deserve, but are

degrading by misuse.  Then alone will the people appreciate the

privilege of wearing it.

 

There are many examples of the highest distinctive insignia being worn

by the unworthy.  The aristocracies of Europe and Asia teem with such.

 

--A. Sarman

 

 

 

 

Reading in a Sealed Envelope

 

 

Some years ago, a Brahman astrologer named Vencata Narasimla Josi, a

native of the village of Periasamudram in the Mysore Provinces, came to

the little town in the Bellary District where I was then employed.  He

was a good Sanskrit, Telugu and Canarese poet, and an excellent master

of Vedic rituals;  knew the Hindu system of astronomy, and professed to

be an astrologer.  Besides all this, he possessed the power of reading

what was contained in any sealed envelope.  The process adopted for this

purpose was simply this:--We wrote whatever we chose on a piece of

paper; enclosed it in one, two or three envelopes, each properly gummed

and sealed, and handed the cover to the astrologer.  He asked us to name

a figure between 1 and 9, and on its being named, he retired with the

envelope to some secluded place for some time; and then he returned with

a paper full of figures, and another paper containing a copy of what was

on the sealed paper--exactly, letter for letter and word for word.  I

tried him often and many others did the same;  and we were all satisfied

that he was invariably accurate, and that there was no deception

whatsoever in the matter.

 

About this time, one Mr. Theyagaraja Mudalyar, a supervisor in the

Public Works Department, an English scholar and a good Sanskrit and

Telugu poet, arrived at our place on his periodical tour of inspection.

Having heard about the aforesaid astrologer, he wanted to test him in a

manner, most satisfactory to himself. One morning handing to the

astrologer a very indifferently gummed envelope, he said, "Here, Sir,

take this letter home with you and come back to me with your copy in the

afternoon."  This loose way of closing the envelope, and the permission

given to the astrologer to take it home for several hours, surprised the

Brahman, who said, "I don't want to go home.  Seal the cover better, and

give me the use of some room here.  I shall be ready with my copy very

soon."  "No," said the Mudalyar, "take it as it is, and come back

whenever you like.  I have the means of finding out the deception, if

any be practiced."

 

So then the astrologer went with the envelope;  and returned to the

Mudalyar's place in the afternoon.  Myself and about twenty others were

present there by appointment.  The astrologer then carefully handed the

cover to the Mudalyar, desiring him to see if it was all right.  "Don't

mind that," the Mudalyar answered; "I can find out the trick, if there

be any.  Produce your copy." The astrologer thereupon presented to the

Mudalyar a paper on which four lines were written and stated that this

was a copy of the paper enclosed in the Mudalyar's envelope.  Those four

lines formed a portion of an antiquated poem.

 

The Mudalyar read the paper once, then read it over again. Extreme

satisfaction beamed over his countenance, and he sat mute for some

seconds seemingly in utter astonishment.  But soon after, the expression

of his face changing, he opened the envelope and threw the enclosure

down, jocularly saying to the astrologer, "Here, Sir, is the original of

which you have produced the copy."

 

The paper lay upon the carpet, and was quite blank! not a word, nor a

letter on its clean surface.

 

This was a sad disappointment to all his admirers;  but to the

astrologer himself, it was a real thunderbolt.  He picked up the paper

pensively, examined it on both sides, then dashed it on the ground in a

fury;  and suddenly arising, exclaimed, "My Vidya* is a delusion, and I

am a liar!"

 

---------

* Secret knowledge, magic.

---------

 

The subsequent behaviour of the poor man made us fear lest this great

disappointment should drive him to commit some desperate act.  In fact

he seemed determined to drown himself in the well, saying that he was

dishonoured.  While we were trying to console him, the Mudalyar came

forward, caught hold of his hands, and besought him to sit down and

calmly listen to his explanation, assuring him that he was not a liar,

and that his copy was perfectly accurate.  But the astrologer would not

be satisfied; he supposed that all this was said simply to console him;

and cursed himself and his fate most horribly.  However, in a few

minutes he became calmer and listened to the Mudalyar's explanation,

which was in substance as follows The only way for the sceptic to

account for this phenomenon, is to suppose that the astrologer opened

the covers dexterously and read their contents.  "So," he said, "I wrote

four lines of old poetry on the paper with nitrate of silver, which

would be invisible until exposed to the light;  and this would have

disclosed the astrologer's fraud, if he had tried to find out the

contents of the enclosed paper, by opening the cover, however

ingeniously. For, if he opened it and looked at the paper, he would have

seen that it was blank, resealed the cover, and declared that the paper

enveloped therein bore no writing whatever;  or if he had, by design or

accident, exposed the paper to light, the writing would have become

black;  and he would have produced a copy of it as if it were the result

of his own Vidya;  but in either case and the writing remaining, his

deception would have been clear, and it would have been patent to all

that he did open the envelope.  But in the present case, the result

proved conclusively that the cover was not opened at all."

 

--P. Sreeneevas Row

 

 

 

 

The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac

 

 

The division of the Zodiac into different signs dates from immemorial

antiquity.  It has acquired a world-wide celebrity and is to be found in

the astrological systems of several nations. The invention of the Zodiac

and its signs has been assigned to different nations by different

antiquarians.  It is stated by some that, at first, there were only ten

signs, that one of these signs was subsequently split up into two

separate signs, and that a new sign was added to the number to render

the esoteric significance of the division more profound, and at the same

time to conceal it more perfectly from the uninitiated public.  It is

very probable that the real philosophical conception of the division

owes its origin to some particular nation, and the names given to the

various signs might have been translated into the languages of other

nations.  The principal object of this article, however, is not to

decide which nation had the honour of inventing the signs in question,

but to indicate to some extent the real philosophical meaning involved

therein, and the way to discover the rest of the meaning which yet

remains undisclosed. But from what is herein stated, an inference may

fairly be drawn that, like so many other philosophical myths and

allegories, the invention of the Zodiac and its signs owes its origin to

ancient India.

 

What then is its real origin, what is the philosophical conception which

the Zodiac and its signs are intended to represent?  Do the various

signs merely indicate the shape or configuration of the different

constellations included in the divisions, or, are they simply masks

designed to veil some hidden meaning?  The former supposition is

altogether untenable for two reasons, viz.:--

 

I.  The Hindus were acquainted with the precession of the equinoxes, as

may he easily seen from their work on Astronomy, and from the almanacs

published by Hindu astronomers.  Consequently they were fully aware of

the fact that the constellations in the various Zodiacal divisions were

not fixed.  They could not, therefore, have assigned particular shapes

to these shifting groups of fixed stars with reference to the divisions

of the Zodiac.  But the names indicating the Zodiacal signs have all

along remained unaltered.  It is to be inferred, therefore, that the

names given to the various signs have no connection whatever with the

configurations of the constellations included in them.

 

II. The names assigned to these signs by the ancient Sanskrit writers

and their exoteric or literal meanings are as follows:--

 

The Names of the Signs ....... Their Exoteric or Literal Meanings

 

1. Mesha ........................... Ram, or Aries.

2. Rishabha .......................Bull, or Taurus.

3. Mithunam ................... Twins, or Gemini (male and female).

4. Karkataka ...................... Crab, or Cancer.

5. Simha .............................. Lion, or Leo.

6. Kanya ............................. Virgin or Virgo.*

7. Tula .......................... Balance, or Libra.

8. Vrischika ..................... Scorpion, or Scorpio.

9. Dhanus ....................... Archer, or Sagittarius.

10. Makara ........... The Goat, or Capricornus (Crocodile, in Sanskrit).

11. Kumbha .................. Water-bearer, or Aquarius.

12. Meenam ................. Fishes, or Pisces.

 

The figures of the constellations included in the signs at the time the

division was first made do not at all resemble the shapes of the

animals, reptiles and other objects denoted by the names given them.

The truth of this assertion can be ascertained by examining the

configurations of the various constellations. Unless the shape of the

crocodile** or the crab is called up by the observer's imagination,

there is very little chance of the stars themselves suggesting to his

idea that figure, upon the blue canopy of the starry firmament.

 

--------

* Virgo-Scorpio, when none but the initiates knew there were twelve

signs.  Virgo-Scorpio was then followed for the profane by Sagittarius.

At the middle or junction-point where now stands Libra and at the sign

now called Virgo, two mystical signs were inserted which remained

unintelligible to the profane.--Ed. Theos.

 

** This constellation was never called Crocodile by the ancient Western

astronomers, who described it as a horned goat and called it so--

Capricornus.--Ed. Theos.

--------

 

If, then, the constellations have nothing to do with the origin of the

names by which the Zodiacal divisions are indicated, we have to seek for

some other source which might have given rise to these appellations.  It

becomes my object to unravel a portion of the mystery connected with

these Zodiacal signs, as also to disclose a portion of the sublime

conception of the ancient Hindu philosophy which gave rise to them.  The

signs of the Zodiac have more than one meaning.  From one point of view

they represent the different stages of evolution up to the time the

present material universe with the five elements came into phenomenal

existence. As the author of "Isis Unveiled" has stated in the second

volume of her admirable work, "The key should be turned seven times" to

understand the whole philosophy underlying these signs.  But I shall

wind it only once and give the contents of the first chapter of the

History of Evolution.  It is very fortunate that the Sanskrit names

assigned to the various divisions by Aryan philosophers contain within

themselves the key to the solution of the problem.  Those of my readers

who have studied to some extent the ancient "Mantra" and the "Tantra

Sastras" * of India, would have seen that very often Sanskrit words are

made to convey a certain hidden meaning by means of well-known

pre-arranged methods and a tacit convention, while their literal

significance is something quite different from the implied meaning.

 

---------

* Works on Incantation and Magic.

---------

 

The following are some of the rules which may help an inquirer in

ferreting out the deep significance of ancient Sanskrit nomenclature to

be found in the old Aryan myths and allegories:

 

1. Find out the synonyms of the word used which have other meanings.

 

2. Find out the numerical value of the letters composing the word

according to the methods given in ancient Tantrika works.

 

3. Examine the ancient myths or allegories, if there are any, which have

any special connection with the word in question.

 

4. Permute the different syllables composing the word and examine the

new combinations that will thus be formed and their meanings, &c. &c.

 

I shall now apply some of the above given rules to the names of the

twelve signs of the Zodiac.

 

I. Mesha.--One of the synonyms of this word is Aja.  Now, Aja literally

means that which has no birth, and is applied to the Eternal Brahma in

certain portions of the Upanishads. So,  the first sign is intended to

represent Parabrahma, the self-existent, eternal, self-sufficient cause

of all.

 

II. Rishabham.--This word is used in several places in the Upanishads

and the Veda to mean Pranava (Aum).  Sankaracharya has so interpreted it

in several portions of his commentary.*

 

--------

* Example, "Rishabhasya--Chandasam Rishabhasya Pradhanasya

Pranavasya."

--------

 

III. Mithuna.--As the word plainly indicates, this sign is intended to

represent the first androgyne, the Ardhanareeswara, the bisexual

Sephira--Adam Kadmon.

 

IV. Karkataka.--When the syllables are converted into the corresponding

numbers, according to the general mode of transmutation so often alluded

to in Mantra Shastra, the word in question will be represented by ////.

This sign then is evidently intended to represent the sacred Tetragram;

the Parabrahmadharaka;  the Pranava resolved into four separate entities

corresponding to its four Matras;  the four Avasthas indicated by

Jagrata (waking) Avastha, Swapna (dreaming) Avastha, Sushupti (deep

sleep) Avastha, and Turiya (the last stage, i.e., Nirvana) Avastha (as

yet in potentiality);  the four states of Brahma called Vaiswanara,

Taijasa (or Hiranyagarbha), Pragna, and Iswara, and represented by

Brahma, Vishna, Maheswara, and Sadasiva;  the four aspects of

Parabrahma, as Sthula (gross), Sukshma (subtle), Vija (seed), and Sakshi

(witness);  the four stages or conditions of the Sacred Word, named

Para, Pasyanti, Madhyama and Vaikhari;  Nadam, Bindu, Sakti and Kala.

This sign completes the first quaternary.

 

V. Simha.--This word contains a world of occult meaning within itself;

and it may not be prudent on my part to disclose the whole of its

meaning now.  It will be sufficient for the present purpose to give a

general indication of its significance.

 

Two of its synonymous terms are Panchasyam and Hari, and its number in

the order of the Zodiacal divisions (being the fifth sign) points

clearly to the former synonym.  This synonym--Panchasyam--shows that

the sign is intended to represent the five Brahmas--viz., Isanam,

Aghoram, Tatpurusham, Vamadevam, and Sadyojatam:--the five Buddhas.  The

second synonym shows it to be Narayana, the Jivatma or Pratyagatma.  The

Sukarahasy Upanishad will show that the ancient Aryan philosophers

looked upon Narayana as the Jivatma.* The Vaishnavites may not admit it.

But as an Advaiti, I look upon Jivatma as identical with Paramatma in

its real essence when stripped of its illusory attributes created by

Agnanam or Avidya--ignorance.

 

---------

* In its lowest or most material state, as the life-principle which

animates the material bodies of the animal and vegetable worlds, &c.

--Ed. Theos.

---------

 

The Jivatma is correctly placed in the fifth sign counting from Mesham,

as the fifth sign is the putrasthanam or the son's house according to

the rules of Hindu Astrology.  The sign in question represents Jivatma--

the son of Paramatma as it were.  (I may also add that it represents the

real Christ, the anointed pure spirit, though many Christians may frown

at this interpretation.)*  I will only add here that unless the nature

of this sign is fully comprehended it will be impossible to understand

the real order of the next three signs and their full significance.  The

elements or entities that have merely a potential existence in this sign

become distinct separate entities in the next three signs.  Their union

into a single entity leads to the destruction of the phenomenal

universe, and the recognition of the pure Spirit and their separation

has the contrary effect.  It leads to material earth-bound existence and

brings into view the picture gallery of Avidya (Ignorance) or Maya

(Illusion).  If the real orthography of the name by which the sign in

question is indicated is properly understood, it will readily be seen

that the next three signs are not what they ought to be.

 

--------

* Nevertheless it is a true one.  The Jiv-atma in the Microcosm (man) is

the same spiritual essence which animates the Macrocosm (universe), the

differentiation, or specific difference between the two Jivatmas

presenting itself but in the two states or conditions of the same and

one Force.  Hence, "this son of Paramatma" is an eternal correlation of

the Father-Cause. Purusha manifesting himself as Brahma of the "golden

egg" and becoming Viradja--the universe.  We are "all born of Aditi from

the water" (Hymns of the Maruts, X. 63, 2), and "Being was born from

not-being" (Rig-Veda, Mandala I, Sukta 166).--Ed. Theos.

-----------

 

Kanya or Virgo and Vrischika or Scorpio should form one single sign, and

Thula must follow the said sign if it is at all necessary to have a

separate sign of that name.  But a separation between Kanya and

Vrischika was effected by interposing the sign Tula between the two.

The object of this separation will be understood on examining the

meaning of the three signs.

 

VI. Kanya.--Means a virgin and represents Sakti or Mahamaya.  The sign

in question is the sixth Rasi or division, and indicates that there are

six primary forces in Nature.  These forces have different sets of names

in Sanskrit philosophy.  According to one system of nomenclature, they

are called by the following names*:--(1) Parasakty;  (2) Gnanasakti;

(3) Itchasakti (will-power); (4) Kriytisakti;  (5) Kundalinisakti;  and

(6) Matrikasakti.  The six forces are in their unity represented by the

Astral Light.**

 

---------

* Parasakti:--Literally the great or supreme force or power. It means

and includes the powers of light and heat.

 

Gnanasakti:--Literally the power of intellect or the power of real

wisdom or knowledge.  It has two aspects.

 

I. The following are some of its manifestations when placed under the

influence or control of material conditions.

 

(a) The power of the mind in interpreting our sensations;  (b) Its power

in recalling past ideas (memory) and raising future expectation;  (c)

Its power as exhibited in what are called by modern psychologists "the

laws of association," which enables it to form persisting connections

between various groups of sensations and possibilities of sensations,

and thus generate the notion or idea of an external object;  (d) Its

power in connecting our ideas together by the mysterious link of memory,

and thus generating the notion of self or individuality.

 

II. The following are some of its manifestations when liberated from the

bonds of matter:--

 

(a) Clairvoyance.  (b) Pyschometry.

 

Itchasakti:--Literally the power of the will.  Its most ordinary

manifestation is the generation of certain nerve currents which set in

motion such muscles as are required for the accomplishment of the

desired object.

 

Kriyasakti:--The mysterious power of thought which enables it to produce

external, perceptible, phenomenal results by its own inherent energy.

The ancients held that any idea will manifest itself externally if one's

attention is deeply concentrated upon it.  Similarly an intense volition

will be followed by the desired result.

 

A Yogi generally performs his wonders by means of Itchasakti and

Kriyasakti.

 

Kundalinisakti:--Literally the power or force which moves in a

serpentine or curved path.  It is the universal life-principle which

everywhere manifests itself in Nature.  This force includes in itself

the two great forces of attraction and repulsion. Electricity and

magnetism are but manifestations of it.  This is the power or force

which brings about that "continuous adjustment of internal relations to

external relations" which is the essence of life according to Herbert

Spencer, and that "continuous adjustment of external relations to

internal relations" which is the basis of transmigration of souls or

punarjanmam (re-birth) according to the doctrines of the ancient Hindu

philosophers.

 

A Yogi must thoroughly subjugate this power or force before he can

attain moksham.  This force is, in fact, the great serpent of the Bible.

 

Matrikasakti:--Literally the force or power of letters or speech or

music.  The whole of the ancient Mantra Shastra has this force or power

in all its manifestations for its subject-matter.  The power of The Word

which Jesus Christ speaks of is a manifestation of this Sakti.  The

influence of its music is one of its ordinary manifestations.  The power

of the mirific ineffable name is the crown of this Sakti.

 

Modern science has but partly investigated the first, second and fifth

of the forces or powers above named, but it is altogether in the dark as

regards the remaining powers.

 

** Even the very name of Kanya (Virgin) shows how all the ancient

esoteric systems agreed in all their fundamental doctrines.  The

Kabalists and the Hermetic philosophers call the Astral Light the

"heavenly or celestial Virgin."  The Astral Light in its unity is the

7th.  Hence the seven principles diffused in every unity or the 6 and

one--two triangles and a crown.--Ed. Theos.

-----------

 

VII. Tula.--When represented by numbers according to the method above

alluded to, this word will be converted into 36.  This sign, therefore,

is evidently intended to represent the 36 Tatwams.  (The number of

Tatwams is different according to the views of different philosophers

but by Sakteyas generally and by several of the ancient Rishis, such as

Agastya, Dvrasa and Parasurama, &c., the number of Tatwams has been

stated to be 36). Jivatma differs from Paramatma, or to state the same

thing in other words, "Baddha" differs from "Mukta" * in being encased

as it were within these 36 Tatwams, while the other is free.  This sign

prepares the way to earthly Adam to Nara.  As the emblem of Nara it is

properly placed as the seventh sign.

 

---------

* As the Infinite differs from the Finite and the Unconditioned

from the Conditioned.--Ed. Theos.

---------

 

VIII. Vrischika.--It is stated by ancient philosophers that the sun when

located in this Rasi or sign is called by the name of Vishnu (see the

12th Skandha of Bhagavata).  This sign is intended to represent Vishnu.

Vishnu literally means that which is expanded--expanded as Viswam or

Universe.  Properly speaking, Viswam itself is Vishnu (see

Sankaracharya's commentary on Vishnusahasranamam).  I have already

intimated that Vishnu represents the Swapnavastha or the Dreaming State.

The sign in question properly signifies the universe in thought or the

universe in the divine conception.

 

It is properly placed as the sign opposite to Rishabham or Pranava.

Analysis from Pranava downwards leads to the Universe of Thought, and

synthesis from the latter upwards leads to Pranava (Aum).  We have now

arrived at the ideal state of the universe previous to its coming into

material existence.  The expansion of the Vija or primitive germ into

the universe is only possible when the 36 "Tatwams" * are interposed

between the Maya and Jivatma.  The dreaming state is induced through the

instrumentality of these "Tatwams."  It is the existence of these

Tatwams that brings Hamsa into existence.  The elimination of these

Tatwams marks the beginning of the synthesis towards Pranava and Brahmam

and converts Hamsa into Soham.  As it is intended to represent the

different stages of evolution from Brahmam downwards to the material

universe, the three signs Kanya, Tula, and Vrischika are placed in the

order in which they now stand as three separate signs.

 

IX. Dhanus (Sagittarius).--When represented in numbers the name is

equivalent to 9, and the division in question is the 9th division

counting from Mesha.  The sign, therefore, clearly indicates the 9

Brahmas--the 9 Parajapatis who assisted the Demiurgus in constructing

the material universe.

 

X. Makara.--There is some difficulty in interpreting this word;

nevertheless it contains within itself the clue to its correct

interpretation.  The letter Ma is equivalent to number 5, and Kara means

hand.  Now in Sanskrit Thribhujam means a triangle, bhujam or karam

(both are synonymous) being understood to mean a side.  So, Makaram or

Panchakaram means a Pentagon.**

 

----------

* 36 is three times 12, or 9 Tetraktis, or 12 Triads, the most sacred

number in the Kabalistic and Pythagorean numerals.--Ed. Theos.

 

** The five-pointed star or pentagram represented the five limbs of

man.--Ed. Theos.

----------

 

Now, Makaram is the tenth sign, and the term "Dasadisa" is generally

used by Sanskrit writers to denote the faces or sides of the universe.

The sign in question is intended to represent the faces of the universe,

and indicates that the figure of the universe is bounded by Pentagons.

If we take the pentagons as regular pentagons (on the presumption or

supposition that the universe is symmetrically constructed) the figure

of the material universe will, of course, be a Dodecahedron, the

geometrical model imitated by the Demiurgus in constructing the material

universe.  If Tula was subsequently invented, and if instead of the

three signs "Kanya," "Tula," and "Vrischikam," there had existed

formerly only one sign combining in itself Kanya and Vrischika, the sign

now under consideration was the eighth sign under the old system, and it

is a significant fact that Sanskrit writers generally speak also of

"Ashtadisa" or eight faces bounding space.  It is quite possible that

the number of disa might have been altered from 8 to 10 when the

formerly existing Virgo-Scorpio was split up into three separate signs.

 

Again, Kara may be taken to represent the projecting triangles of the

five-pointed star.  This figure may also be called a kind of regular

pentagon (see Todhunter's "Spherical Trigonometry," p. 143).  If this

interpretation is accepted, the Rasi or sign in question represents the

"microcosm."  But the "microcosm" or the world of thought is really

represented by Vrischika.  From an objective point of view the

"microcosm" is represented by the human body. Makaram may be taken to

represent simultaneously both the microcosm and the macrocosm, as

external objects of perception.

 

In connection with this sign I shall state a few important facts which I

beg to submit for the consideration of those who are interested in

examining the ancient occult sciences of India.  It is generally held by

the ancient philosophers that the macrocosm is similar to the microcosm

in having a Sthula Sariram and a Suksma Sariram.   The visible universe

is the Sthula Sariram of Viswam;  the ancient philosophers held that as

a substratum for this visible universe, there is another universe--

perhaps we may call it the universe of Astral Light--the real universe

of Noumena, the soul as it were of this visible universe.  It is darkly

hinted in certain passages of the Veda and the Upanishads that this

hidden universe of Astral Light is to be represented by an Icosahedron.

The connection between an Icosahedron and a Dodecahedron is something

very peculiar and interesting, though the figures seem to be so very

dissimilar to each other.  The connection may be understood by the

under-mentioned geometrical construction.  Describe a Sphere about an

Icosahedron;  let perpendiculars be drawn from the centre of the Sphere

on its faces and produced to meet the surface of the Sphere.  Now, if

the points of intersection be joined, a Dodecahedron is formed within

the Sphere.  By a similar process an Icosahedron may be constructed from

a Dodecahedron.  (See Todhunter's "Spherical Trigonometry," p. 141, art.

193).  The figure constructed as above described will represent the

universe of matter and the universe of Astral Light as they actually

exist.  I shall not now, however, proceed to show how the universe of

Astral Light may be considered under the symbol of an Icosahedron.  I

shall only state that this conception of the Aryan philosophers is not

to be looked upon as mere "theological twaddle" or as the outcome of

wild fancy.  The real significance of the conception in question can, I

believe, be explained by reference to the psychology and the physical

science of the ancients.  But I must stop here and proceed to consider

the meaning of the remaining two signs.

 

XI. Kumbha (or Aquarius).--When represented by numbers, the word is

equivalent to 14.  It can be easily perceived then that the division in

question is intended to represent the "Chaturdasa Bhuvanam," or the 14

lokas spoken of in Sanskrit writings.

 

XII. Mina (or Pisces).--This word again is represented by 5 when written

in numbers, and is evidently intended to convey the idea of

Panchamahabhutams or the 5 elements.  The sign also suggests that water

(not the ordinary water, but the universal solvent of the ancient

alchemists) is the most important amongst the said elements.

 

I have now finished the task which I have set to myself in this article.

My purpose is not to explain the ancient theory of evolution itself, but

to show the connection between that theory and the Zodiacal divisions.

I have herein brought to light but a very small portion of the

philosophy imbedded in these signs. The veil that was dexterously thrown

over certain portions of the mystery connected with these signs by the

ancient philosophers will never be lifted up for the amusement or

edification of the uninitiated public.

 

Now to summarize the facts stated in this article, the contents of the

first chapter of the history of this universe are as follows:

 

1.  The self-existent, eternal Brahmam.

 

2.  Pranava (Aum).

 

3.  The androgyne Brahma, or the bisexual Sephira-Adam Kadmon.

 

4.  The Sacred Tetragram--the four matras of Pranava--the four

    avasthas--the four states of Brahma--the Sacred Dharaka.

 

5.  The five Brahmas--the five Buddhas representing in their totality

    the Jivatma.

 

6.  The Astral Light--the holy Virgin--the six forces in Nature.

 

7.  The thirty-six Tatwams born of Avidya.

 

8.  The universe in thought--the Swapna Avastha--the microcosm looked at

    from a subjective point of view.

 

9.  The nine Prajapatis--the assistants of the Demiurgus.*

 

10.  The shape of the material universe in the mind of the Demiurgus--

     the DODECAHEDRON.

 

11.  The fourteen lokas.

 

12.  The five elements.

 

--------

* The nine Kabalistic Sephiroths emanated from Sephira the 10th and the

head Sephiroth are identical.  Three trinities or triads with their

emanative principle form the Pythagorean mystic Decad, the sum of all

which represents the whole Kosmos.--Ed. Theos.

--------

 

The history of creation and of this world from its beginning up to the

present time is composed of seven chapters.  The seventh chapter is not

yet completed.

 

--T. Subba Row

Triplicane, Madras, September 14, 1881

 

 

 

 

The Sishal and Bhukailas Yogis

 

We are indebted to the kindness of the learned President of the Adi

Brahmo Samaji for the following accounts of two Yogis, of whom one

performed the extraordinary feats of raising his body by will power, and

keeping it suspended in the air without visible support.  The Yoga

posture for meditation or concentration of the mind upon spiritual

things is called Asana.  There are various of these modes of sitting,

such as Padmasan, &c. &c.  Babu Rajnarain Bose translated this narrative

from a very old number of the Tatwabodhini Patrika, the Calcutta organ

of the Brahmo Samaj. The writer was Babu Akkhaya Kumar Dalta, then

editor of the Patrika, of whom Babu Rajnarain speaks in the following

high terms--"A very truth-loving and painstaking man;  very fond of

observing strict accuracy in the details of a description."

 

Sishal Yogi

 

A few years ago, a Deccan Yogi, named Sishal, was seen at Madras, by

many Hindus and Englishmen, to raise his Asana, or seat, up into the

air.  The picture of the Yogi, showing his mode of seating, and other

particulars connected with him, may be found in the Saturday Magazine on

page 28.

 

His whole body seated in air, only his right hand lightly touched a deer

skin, rolled up in the form of a tube, and attached to a brazen rod

which was firmly stuck into a wooden board resting on four legs.  In

this position the Yogi used to perform his japa (mystical meditation),

with his eyes half shut.  At the time of his ascending to his aerial

seat, and also when he descended from it, his disciples used to cover

him with a blanket.  The Tatwabodhini Patrika, Chaitra, 1768 Sakabda,

corresponding to March 1847.

 

 

The Bhukailas Yogi

 

The extraordinary character of the holy man who was brought to

Bhukailas, in Kidderpore, about 14 years ago, may still be remembered by

many.  In the month of Asar, 1754 Sakabda (1834 A.C.), he was brought to

Bhukailas from Shirpur, where he was under the charge of Hari Singh, the

durwan (porter) of Mr. Jones. He kept his eyes closed, and went without

food and drink, for three consecutive days, after which a small quantity

of milk was forcibly poured down his throat.  He never took any food

that was not forced upon him.  He seemed always without external

consciousness.  To remove this condition Dr. Graham applied ammonia to

his nostrils;  but it only produced tremblings in the body, and did not

break his Yoga state.  Three days passed before he could be made to

speak.  He said that his name was Dulla Nabab, and when annoyed, he

uttered a single word, from which it was inferred that he was a Punjabi.

When he was laid up with gout Dr. Graham attended him, but he refused to

take medicine, either in the form of powder or mixture.  He was cured of

the disease only by the application of ointments and liniments

prescribed by the doctor.  He died in the month of Chaitra 1755 Sakabda,

of a choleric affection.*--The Tatwabodhini Patrika, Chaitra, 1768

Sakabda, corresponding to March, 1847 A.C.

 

--------

* The above particulars of this holy man have been obtained on

unexceptionable testimony.--Ed. T.B.P.

--------------------

 

 

PHILOSOPHICAL

 

 

 

True and False Personality

 

 

The title prefixed to the following observations may well have suggested

a more metaphysical treatment of the subject than can be attempted on

the present occasion.  The doctrine of the trinity, or trichotomy of

man, which distinguishes soul from spirit, comes to us with such

weighty, venerable, and even sacred authority, that we may well be

content, for the moment, with confirmations that should be intelligible

to all, forbearing the abstruser questions which have divided minds of

the highest philosophical capacity.  We will not now inquire whether the

difference is one of states or of entities;  whether the phenomenal or

mind consciousness is merely the external condition of one indivisible

Ego, or has its origin and nature in an altogether different principle;

the Spirit, or immortal part of us, being of Divine birth, while the

senses and understanding, with the consciousness--Ahankara--thereto

appertaining, are from an Anima Mundi, or what in the Sankhya philosophy

is called Prakriti.  My utmost expectations will have been exceeded if

it should happen that any considerations here offered should throw even

a faint suggestive light upon the bearings of this great problem.  It

may be that the mere irreconcilability of all that is characteristic of

the temporal Ego with the conditions of the superior life--if that can

be made apparent--will incline you to regard the latter rather as the

Redeemer, that has indeed to be born within us for our salvation and our

immortality, than as the inmost, central, and inseparable principle of

our phenomenal life.  It may be that by the light of such reflections

the sense of identity will present no insuperable difficulty to the

conception of its contingency, or to the recognition that the mere

consciousness which fails to attach itself to a higher principle is no

guarantee of an eternal individuality.

 

It is only by a survey of individuality, regarded as the source of all

our affections, thoughts, and actions, that we can realize its intrinsic

worthlessness;  and only when we have brought ourselves to a real and

felt acknowledgment of that fact, can we accept with full understanding

those "hard sayings" of sacred authority which bid us "die to

ourselves," and which proclaim the necessity of a veritable new birth.

This mystic death and birth is the key-note of all profound religious

teaching;  and that which distinguishes the ordinary religious mind from

spiritual insight is just the tendency to interpret these expressions as

merely figurative, or, indeed, to overlook them altogether.

 

Of all the reproaches which modern Spiritualism, with the prospect it is

thought to hold out of an individual temporal immortality, has had to

encounter, there is none that we can less afford to neglect than that

which represents it as an ideal essentially egotistical and borne.  True

it is that our critics do us injustice through ignorance of the enlarged

views as to the progress of the soul in which the speculations of

individual Spiritualists coincide with many remarkable spirit teachings.

These are, undoubtedly, a great advance upon popular theological

opinions, while some of them go far to satisfy the claim of Spiritualism

to be regarded as a religion.  Nevertheless, that slight estimate of

individuality, as we know it, which in one view too easily allies itself

to materialism, is also the attitude of spiritual idealism, and is

seemingly at variance with the excessive value placed by Spiritualists

on the discovery of our mere psychic survival.  The idealist may

recognise this survival;  but, whether he does so or not, he occupies a

post of vantage when he tells us that it is of no ultimate importance.

For he, like the Spiritualist who proclaims his "proof palpable of

immortality," is thinking of the mere temporal, self-regarding

consciousness--its sensibilities, desires, gratifications, and

affections--which are unimportant absolutely, that is to say, their

importance is relative solely to the individual.  There is, indeed, no

more characteristic outbirth of materialism than that which makes a

teleological centre of the individual.  Ideas have become mere

abstractions;  the only reality is the infinitely little.  Thus

utilitarianism can see in the State only a collection of individuals

whose "greatest happiness," mutually limited by nice adjustment to the

requirements of "the greatest numbers," becomes the supreme end of

government and law.  And it cannot, I think, be pretended that

Spiritualists in general have advanced beyond this substitution of a

relative for an absolute standard.  Their "glad tidings of great joy"

are not truly religious.  They have regard to the perpetuation in time

of that lower consciousness whose manifestations, delights, and activity

are in time, and of time alone.  Their glorious message is not

essentially different from that which we can conceive as brought to us

by some great alchemist, who had discovered the secret of conferring

upon us and upon our friends a mundane perpetuity of youth and health.

Its highest religious claim is that it enlarges the horizon of our

opportunities.  As such, then, let us hail it with gratitude and relief;

but, on peril of our salvation, if I may not say of our immortality, let

us not repose upon a prospect which is, at best, one of renewed labours,

and trials, and efforts to be free even of that very life whose only

value is opportunity.

 

To estimate the value of individuality, we cannot do better than regard

man in his several mundane relations, supposing that either of these

might become the central, actuating focus of his being--his "ruling

love," as Swedenborg would call it--displacing his mere egoism, or

self-love, thrusting that more to the circumference, and identifying

him, so to speak, with that circle of interests to which all his

energies and affections relate. Outside this substituted Ego we are to

suppose that he has no conscience, no desire, no will.  Just as the

entirely selfish man views the whole of life, so far as it can really

interest him solely in relation to his individual well-being, so our

supposed man of a family, of a society, of a Church, or a State, has no

eye for any truth or any interest more abstract or more individual than

that of which he may be rightly termed the incarnation.  History shows

approximations to this ideal man. Such a one, for instance, I conceive

to have been Loyola;  such another, possibly, is Bismarck.  Now these

men have ceased to be individuals in their own eyes, so far as concerns

any value attaching to their own special individualities.  They are

devotees.  A certain "conversion" has been effected, by which from mere

individuals they have become "representative" men.  And we--the

individuals--esteem them precisely in proportion to the remoteness from

individualism of the spirit that actuates them. As the circle of

interests to which they are "devoted" enlarges--that is to say, as the

dross of individualism is purged away--we accord them indulgence,

respect, admiration and love. From self to the family, from the family

to the sect or society, from the sect or society to the Church (in no

denominational sense) and State, there is the ascending scale and

widening circle, the successive transitions which make the worth of an

individual depend on the more or less complete subversion of his

individuality by a more comprehensive soul or spirit.  The very modesty

which suppresses, as far as possible, the personal pronoun in our

addresses to others, testifies to our sense that we are hiding away some

utterly insignificant and unworthy thing; a thing that has no business

even to be, except in that utter privacy which is rather a sleep and a

rest than living.  Well, but in the above instances, even those most

remote from sordid individuality, we have fallen far short of that ideal

in which the very conception of the partial, the atomic, is lost in the

abstraction of universal being, transfigured in the glory of a Divine

personality.  You are familiar with Swedenborg's distinction between

discrete and continuous degrees. Hitherto we have seen how man--the

individual--may rise continuously by throwing himself heart and soul

into the living interests of the world, and lose his own limitations by

adoption of a larger mundane spirit. But still he has but ascended

nearer to his own mundane source, that soul of the world, or Prakriti,

to which, if I must not too literally insist on it, I may still resort

as a convenient figure.  To transcend it, he must advance by the

discrete degree.  No simple "bettering" of the ordinary self, which

leaves it alive, as the focus--the French word "foyer" is the more

expressive--of his thoughts and actions;  not even that identification

with higher interests in the world's plane just spoken of, is, or can

progressively become, in the least adequate to the realization of his

Divine ideal.  This "bettering" of our present nature, it alone being

recognized as essential, albeit capable of "improvement," is a

commonplace, and to use a now familiar term a "Philistine," conception.

It is the substitution of the continuous for the discrete degree.  It is

a compromise with our dear old familiar selves.  "And Saul and the

people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of

the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not

utterly destroy them;  but everything that was vile and refuse, that

they destroyed utterly."  We know how little acceptable that compromise

was to the God of Israel;  and no illustration can be more apt than this

narrative, which we may well, as we would fain, believe to be rather

typical than historical.  Typical of that indiscriminate and radical

sacrifice, or "vastation," of our lower nature, which is insisted upon

as the one thing needful by all, or nearly all,* the great religions of

the world.  No language could seem more purposely chosen to indicate

that it is the individual nature itself, and not merely its accidental

evils, that has to be abandoned and annihilated.  It is not denied that

what was spared was good;  there is no suggestion of a universal

infection of physical or moral evil;  it is simply that what is good and

useful relatively to a lower state of being must perish with it if the

latter is to make way for something better.  And the illustration is the

more suitable in that the purpose of this paper is not ethical, but

points to a metaphysical conclusion, though without any attempt at

metaphysical exposition.  There is no question here of moral

distinctions; they are neither denied nor affirmed.  According to the

highest moral standard, 'A' may be a most virtuous and estimable person.

According to the lowest, 'B' may be exactly the reverse.  The moral

interval between the two is within what I have called, following

Swedenborg, the "continuous degree."  And perhaps the distinction can be

still better expressed by another reference to that Book which we

theosophical students do not less regard, because we are disposed to

protest against all exclusive pretensions of religious systems.

 

--------

* Of the higher religious teachings of Mohammedanism I know next to

nothing, and therefore cannot say if it should be excepted from the

statement.

--------

 

The good man who has, however, not yet attained his "son-ship of God" is

"under the law"--that moral law which is educational and preparatory,

"the schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ," our own Divine spirit, or

higher personality.  To conceive the difference between these two states

is to apprehend exactly what is here meant by the false, temporal, and

the true, eternal personality, and the sense in which the word

personality is here intended to be understood.  We do not know whether,

when that great change has come over us, when that great work* of our

lives has been accomplished--here or hereafter--we shall or shall not

retain a sense of identity with our past, and forever discarded selves.

In philosophical parlance, the "matter" will have gone, and the very

"form" will have been changed.  Our transcendental identity with the 'A'

or 'B' that now is** must depend on that question, already disclaimed in

this paper, whether the Divine spirit is our originally central

essential being, or is an hypostasis. Now, being "under the law" implies

that we do not act directly from our own will, but indirectly, that is,

in willing obedience to another will.

 

--------

* The "great work," so often mentioned by the hermetic philosophers, and

which is exactly typified by the operation of alchemy, the conversion of

the base metals to gold, is now well understood to refer to the

analogous spiritual conversion.  There is also good reason to believe

that the material process was a real one.

 

** "A person may have won his immortal life, and remained the same inner

self he was on earth, through eternity;  but this does not imply

necessarily that he must either remain the Mr. Smith or Brown he was on

earth, or lose his individuality."--Isis Unveiled, vol. 1. p. 316.

----------

 

The will from which we should naturally act--our own will--is of course

to be understood not as mere volition, but as our nature--our "ruling

love," which makes such and such things agreeable to us, and others the

reverse.  As "under the law," this nature is kept in suspension, and

because it is suspended only as to its activity and manifestation, and

by no means abrogated, is the law--the substitution of a foreign will--

necessary for us.  Our own will or nature is still central;  that which

we obey by effort and resistance to ourselves is more circumferential or

hypostatic.  Constancy in this obedience and resistance tends to draw

the circumferential will more and more to the centre, till there ensues

that "explosion," as St. Martin called it, by which our natural will is

for ever dispersed and annihilated by contact with the divine, and the

latter henceforth becomes our very own. Thus has "the schoolmaster"

brought us unto "Christ," and if by "Christ" we understand no

historically divine individual, but the logos, word, or manifestation of

God in us--then we have, I believe, the essential truth that was taught

in the Vedanta, by Kapila, by Buddha, by Confucius, by Plato, and by

Jesus.  There is another presentation of possibly the same truth, for a

reference to which I am indebted to our brother J.W. Farquhar. It is

from Swedenborg, in the "Apocalypse Explained," No. 57:--"Every man has

an inferior or exterior mind, and a mind superior or interior.  These

two minds are altogether distinct.  By the inferior mind man is in the

natural world together with men there;  but by the superior mind he is

in the spiritual world with the angels there.  These two minds are so

distinct that man so long as he lives in the world does not know what is

performing within himself in his superior mind;  but when he becomes a

spirit, which is immediately after death, he does not know what is

performing in his mind."  The consciousness of the "superior mind," as

the result of mere separation from the earthly body, certainly does not

suggest that sublime condition which implies separation from so much

more than the outer garment of flesh, but otherwise the distinction

between the two lives, or minds, seems to correspond with that now under

consideration.

 

What is it that strikes us especially about this substitution of the

divine-human for the human-natural personality?  Is it not the loss of

individualism?  (Individualism, pray observe, not individuality.)  There

are certain sayings of Jesus which have probably offended many in their

hearts, though they may not have dared to acknowledge such a feeling to

themselves:  "Woman, what have I to do with thee?" and those other

disclaimers of special ties and relationships which mar the perfect

sympathy of our reverence.  There is something awful and

incomprehensible to us in this repudiation of individualism, even in its

most amiable relations.  But it is in the Aryan philosophies that we see

this negation of all that we associate with individual life most

emphatically and explicitly insisted on.  It is, indeed, the

impossibility of otherwise than thus negatively characterizing the soul

that has attained Moksha (deliverance from bonds) which has caused the

Hindu consummation to be regarded as the loss of individuality and

conscious existence.  It is just because we cannot easily dissociate

individuality from individualism that we turn from the sublime

conception of primitive philosophy as from what concerns us as little as

the ceaseless activity and germination in other brains of thought once

thrown off and severed from the thinking source, which is the

immortality promised by Mr. Frederick Harrison to the select specimens

of humanity whose thoughts have any reproductive power.  It is not a

mere preference of nothingness, or unconscious absorption, to limitation

that inspires the intense yearning of the Hindu mind for Nirvana.  Even

in the Upanishads there are many evidences of a contrary belief, while

in the Sankhya the aphorisms of Kapila unmistakably vindicate the

individuality of soul (spirit). Individual consciousness is maintained,

perhaps infinitely intensified, but its "matter" is no longer personal.

Only try to realize what "freedom from desire," the favourite phrase in

which individualism is negated in these systems, implies.  Even in that

form of devotion which consists in action, the soul is warned in the

Bhagavad-Gita that it must be indifferent to results.

 

Modern Spiritualism itself testifies to something of the same sort.

Thus we are told by one of its most gifted and experienced champions,

"Sometimes the evidence will come from an impersonal source, from some

instructor who has passed through the plane on which individuality is

demonstrable." (M.A. (Oxon.), "Spirit Identity," p. 7.)  Again, "And if

he" (the investigator) "penetrates far enough, he will find himself in a

region for which his present embodied state unfits him:  a region in

which the very individuality is merged, and the highest and subtlest

truths are not locked within one breast, but emanate from representative

companies whose spheres of life are interblended." (Id., p. 15.)  By

this "interblending" is of course meant only a perfect sympathy and

community of thought;  and I should doubtless misrepresent the author

quoted were I to claim an entire identity of the idea he wishes to

convey, and that now under consideration.  Yet what, after all, is

sympathy but the loosening of that hard "astringent" quality (to use

Bohme's phrase) wherein individualism consists?  And just as in true

sympathy, the partial suppression of individualism and of what is

distinctive, we experience a superior delight and intensity of being, so

it may be that in parting with all that shuts us up in the spiritual

penthouse of an Ego--all, without exception or reserve--we may for the

first time know what true life is, and what are its ineffable

privileges.  Yet it is not on this ground that acceptance can be hoped

for the conception of immortality here crudely and vaguely presented ill

contrast to that bourgeois eternity of individualism and the family

affections, which is probably the great charm of Spiritualism to the

majority of its proselytes.  It is doubtful whether the things that "eye

hath not seen, nor ear heard," have ever taken stronghold of the

imagination, or reconciled it to the loss of all that is definitely

associated with the Joy and movement of living.  Not as consummate bliss

can the dweller on the lower plane presume to command that transcendent

life.  At the utmost he can but echo the revelation that came to the

troubled mind in "Sartor Resartus," "A man may do without happiness, and

instead thereof find blessedness."  It is no sublimation of hope, but

the necessities of thought that compel us to seek the condition of true

being and immortality elsewhere than in the satisfactions of

individualism.  True personality can only subsist in consciousness by

participation of that of which we can only say that it is the very

negation of individuality in any sense in which individuality can be

conceived by us.  What is the content or "matter" of consciousness we

cannot define, save by vaguely calling it ideal.  But we can say that in

that region individual interests and concerns will find no place.  Nay,

more, we can affirm that only then has the influx of the new life a free

channel when the obstructions of individualism are already removed.

Hence the necessity of the mystic death, which is as truly a death as

that which restores our physical body to the elements.  "Neither I am,

nor is aught mine, nor do I exist," a passage which has been well

explained by a Hindu Theosophist (Peary Chand Mittra), as meaning "that

when the spiritual state is arrived at, I and mine, which belong to the

finite mind, cease, and the soul, living in the universum and

participating in infinity with God, manifests its infinite state."  I

cannot refrain from quoting the following passage from the same

instructive writer:--

 

Every human being has a soul which, while not separable from the brain

or nerves, is mind or jivatma, or sentient soul, but when regenerated or

spiritualized by yoga, it is free from bondage and manifests the divine

essence.  It rises above all phenomenal states--joy, sorrow, grief,

fear, hope, and in fact all states resulting in pain or pleasure, and

becomes blissful, realizing immortality, infinitude and felicity of

wisdom within itself. The sentient soul is nervous, sensational,

emotional, phenomenal, and impressional.  It constitutes the natural

life and is finite. The soul and the non-soul are thus the two

landmarks.  What is non-soul is prakriti, or created.  It is not the lot

of every one to know what soul is, and therefore millions live and die

possessing minds cultivated in intellect and feeling, but not raised to

the soul state.  In proportion as one's soul is emancipated from

prakriti or sensuous bondage, in that proportion his approximation to

the soul state is attained;  and it is this that constitutes disparities

in the intellectual, moral, and religious culture of human beings and

their consequent approximation to God.--Spiritual Stray Leaves,

Calcutta, 1879.

 

He also cites some words of Fichte, which prove that the like conclusion

is reached in the philosophy of Western idealism: "The real spirit which

comes to itself in human consciousness is to be regarded as an

impersonal pneuma--universal reason, nay, as the spirit of God Himself;

and the good of man's whole development, therefore, can be no other than

to substitute the universal for the individual consciousness."

 

That there may be, and are affirmed to be, intermediate stages, states,

or discrete degrees, will, of course, be understood.  The aim of this

paper has been to call attention to the abstract condition of the

immortalized consciousness;  negatively it is true, but it is on this

very account more suggestive of practical applications.  The connection

of the Theosophical Society with the Spiritualist movement is so

intimately sympathetic, that I hope one of these may he pointed out

without offence.  It is that immortality cannot be phenomenally

demonstrated.  What I have called psychic survival can be, and probably

is.  But immortality is the attainment of a state, and that state the

very negation of phenomenal existence.  Another consequence refers to

the direction our culture should take.  We have to compose ourselves to

death.  Nothing less.  We are each of us a complex of desires, passions,

interests, modes of thinking and feeling, opinions, prejudices, judgment

of others, likings and dislikings, affections, aims public and private.

These things, and whatever else constitutes, the recognizable content of

our present temporal individuality, are all in derogation of our ideal

of impersonal being--saving consciousness, the manifestation of being.

In some minute, imperfect, relative, and almost worthless sense we may

do right in many of our judgments, and be amiable in many of our

sympathies and affections.  We cannot be sure even of this.  Only people

unhabituated to introspection and self-analysis are quite sure of it.

These are ever those who are loudest in their censures, and most

dogmatic in their opinionative utterances.  In some coarse, rude fashion

they are useful, it may be indispensable, to the world's work, which is

not ours, save in a transcendental sense and operation.  We have to

strip ourselves of all that, and to seek perfect passionless

tranquillity.  Then we may hope to die.  Meditation, if it be deep, and

long, and frequent enough, will teach even our practical Western mind to

understand the Hindu mind in its yearning for Nirvana.  One

infinitesimal atom of the great conglomerate of humanity, who enjoys the

temporal, sensual life, with its gratifications and excitements, as much

as most, will testify with unaffected sincerity that he would rather be

annihilated altogether than remain for ever what he knows himself to be,

or even recognizably like it.  And he is a very average moral specimen.

I have heard it said, "The world's life and business would come to an

end, there would be an end to all its healthy activity, an end of

commerce, arts, manufactures, social intercourse, government, law, and

science, if we were all to devote ourselves to the practice of Yoga,

which is pretty much what your ideal comes to."  And the criticism is

perfectly just and true.  Only I believe it does not go quite far

enough.  Not only the activities of the world, but the phenomenal world

itself, which is upheld in consciousness, would disappear or take new,

more interior, more living, and more significant forms, at least for

humanity, if the consciousness of humanity was itself raised to a

superior state.  Readers of St. Martin, and of that impressive book of

the late James Hinton, "Man and his Dwelling-place," especially if they

have also by chance been students of the idealistic philosophies, will

not think this suggestion extravagant.  If all the world were Yogis, the

world would have no need of those special activities, the ultimate end

and purpose of which, by-the-by, our critic would find it not easy to

define. And if only a few withdraw, the world can spare them.  Enough of

that.

 

Only let us not talk of this ideal of impersonal, universal being in

individual consciousness as an unverified dream.  Our sense and

impatience of limitations are the guarantees that they are not final and

insuperable.  Whence is this power of standing outside myself, of

recognizing the worthlessness of the pseudo--judgments, of the

prejudices with their lurid colouring of passion, of the temporal

interests, of the ephemeral appetites, of all the sensibilities of

egoism, to which I nevertheless surrender myself so that they indeed

seem myself?  Through and above this troubled atmosphere I see a being,

pure, passionless, rightly measuring the proportions and relations of

things, for whom there is, properly speaking, no present, with its

phantasms, falsities, and half-truths;  who has nothing personal in the

sense of being opposed to the whole of related personalities: who sees

the truth rather than struggles logically towards it, and truth of which

I can at present form no conception;  whose activities are unimpeded by

intellectual doubt, un-perverted by moral depravity, and who is

indifferent to results, because he has not to guide his conduct by

calculation of them, or by any estimate of their value.  I look up to

him with awe, because in being passionless he sometimes seems to me to

be without love. Yet I know that this is not so;  only that his love is

diffused by its range, and elevated in abstraction beyond my gaze and

comprehension. And I see in this being my ideal, my higher, my only

true, in a word, my immortal self.

 

--C.C. Massey

 

 

 

 

Chastity

 

 

Ideal woman is the most beautiful work of the evolution of forms (in our

days she is very often only a beautiful work of art).  A beautiful woman

is the most attractive, charming, and lovely being that a man can

imagine.  I never saw a male being who could lay any claims to manly

vigour, strength or courage, who was not an admirer of woman.  Only a

profligate, a coward or a sneak would hate women;  a hero and a man

admires woman, and is admired by her.

 

Women's love belongs to a complete man.  Then she smiles on him his

human nature becomes aroused, his animal desires like little children

begin to clamour for bread, they do not want to be starved, they want to

satisfy their hunger.  His whole soul flies towards the lovely being,

which attracts him with almost irresistible force, and if his higher

principles, his divine spirit, is not powerful enough to restrain him,

his soul follows the temptations of his physical body.  Once again the

animal nature has subdued the divine.  Woman rejoices in her victory,

and man is ashamed of his weakness;  and instead of being a

representation of strength, he becomes an object of pity.

 

To be truly powerful a man must retain his power and never for a moment

lose it.  To lose it is to surrender his divine nature to his animal

nature;  to restrain his desires and retain his power, is to assert his

divine right, and to become more than a man--a god.

 

Eliphas Levi says:  "To be an object of attraction for all women, you

must desire none;"  and every one who has had a little experience of his

own must know that he is right.  Woman wants what she cannot get, and

what she can get she does not want. Perhaps it is to the man endowed

with spiritual power, that the Bible refers, when it says:  "To him who

has much, more shall be given, and from him who has little, that little

shall be taken away."

 

To become perfect it is not required that we should be born without any

animal desires.  Such a person would not be much above an idiot;  he

would be rightly despised and laughed at by every true man and woman;

but we must obtain the power to control our desires, instead of being

controlled by them;  and here lies the true philosophy of temptation.

 

If a man has no higher aim in life than to eat and drink and propagate

his species;  if all his aspirations and desires are centred in a wish

of living a happy life in the bosom of his family;  there can be no

wrong if he follows the dictates of his nature and is satisfied with his

lot.  When he dies, his family will mourn, his friends will say he was a

good fellow;  they will give him a first-class funeral, and they will

perhaps write on his tombstone something like what I once saw in a

certain churchyard:

 

     Here is the grave of John McBride,

     He lived, got married, and died.

 

And that will be the end of Mr. John McBride, until in another

incarnation he will wake up again perhaps as Mr. John Smith, or

Ramchandra Row, or Patrick O'Flannegan, to find himself on much the same

level as he was before.

 

But if a man has higher aims and objects in life, if he wants to avoid

an endless cycle of re-incarnations, if he wants to become a master of

his destiny, then must he first become a master of himself.  How can he

expect to be able to control the external forces of Nature, if he cannot

control the few little natural forces that reside within his own

insignificant body?

 

To do this, it is not necessary that a man should run away from his wife

and family, and leave them uncared for.  Such a man would commence his

spiritual career with an act of injustice,--an act that like Banquo's

ghost would always haunt him and hinder him in his further progress.  If

a man has taken upon himself responsibilities, he is bound to fulfill

them, and an act of cowardice would be a bad beginning for a work that

requires courage.

 

A celibate, who has no temptation and who has no one to care for but

himself, has undoubtedly superior advantages for meditation and study.

Being away from all irritating influences, he can lead what may be

called a selfish life;  because he looks out only for his own spiritual

interest;  but he has little opportunity to develop his will-power by

resisting temptations of every kind.  But the man who is surrounded by

the latter, and is every day and every hour under the necessity of

exercising his will-power to resist their surging violence, will, if he

rightly uses these powers, become strong;  he may not have as much

opportunity for study as the celibate, being more engrossed in material

cares;  but when he rises up to a higher state in his next incarnation,

his will-power will be more developed, and he will be in the possession

of the password, which is CONTINENCE.

 

A slave cannot become a commander, until after he becomes free. A man

who is subject to his own animal desires, cannot command the animal

nature of others.  A muscle becomes developed by its use, an instinct or

habit is strengthened in proportion as it is permitted to rule, a mental

power becomes developed by practice, and the principle of will grows

strong by exercise;  and this is the use of temptations.  To have strong

passions and to overcome them, makes man a hero.  The sexual instinct is

the strongest of all, and he who vanquishes it, becomes a god.

 

The human soul admires a beautiful form, and is therefore an idolater.

 

The human spirit adores a principle, and is the true worshiper.

 

Marriage is the union of the male spirit with the female soul for the

purpose of propagating the species;  but if in its place there is only a

union of a male and a female body, then marriage becomes merely a brutal

act, which lowers man and woman, not to the level of animals but below

them;  because animals are restricted to certain seasons for the

exercise of their procreative powers;  while man, being a reasonable

being, has it in his power to use or abuse them at all times.

 

But how many marriages do we find that are really spiritual and not

based on beauty of form or other considerations?  How soon after the

wedding-day do they become disgusted with each other? What is the cause

of this?  A man and a woman may marry and their characters may differ

widely.  They may have different tastes, different opinions and

different inclinations.  All those differences may disappear, and will

probably disappear;  because by living together they become accustomed

to each other, and become equalized in time.  Each influences the other,

and as a man may grow fond of a pet snake, whose presence at first

horrified him, so a man may put up with a disagreeable partner and

become fond of her in course of time.

 

But if the man allows full liberty to his animal passions, and exercises

his "legal rights" without restraint, these animal cravings which first

called so piteously for gratification, will soon be gorged, and flying

away laugh at the poor fool who nursed them in his breast.  The wife

will come to know that her husband is a coward, because she sees him

squirm under the lash of his animal passions;  and as woman loves

strength and power, so in proportion as he loses his love, will she lose

her confidence. He will look upon her as a burden, and she will look

upon him in disgust as a brute.  Conjugal happiness will have departed,

and misery, divorce or death will be the end.

 

The remedy for all these evils is continence, and it has been our object

to show its necessity, for it was the object of this article.

 

--F. Hartmann

 

 

 

 

Zoroastrianism on the Septenary Constitution of Man

 

 

Many of the esoteric doctrines given out through the Theosophical

Society reveal a spirit akin to that of the older religions of the East,

especially the Vedic and the Zendic.  Leaving aside the former, I

propose to point out by a few instances the close resemblance which the

doctrines of the old Zendic Scriptures, as far as they are now

preserved, bear to these recent teachings.

 

Any ordinary Parsi, while reciting his daily Niyashes, Gehs and Yashts,

provided he yields to the curiosity of looking into the meanings of what

he recites, will, with a little exertion, perceive how the same ideas,

only clothed in a more intelligible and comprehensive garb, are

reflected in these teachings.  The description of the septenary

constitution of man found in the 54th chapter of the Yasna, one of the

most authoritative books of the Mazdiasnian religion, shows the identity

of the doctrines of Avesta and the esoteric philosophy.  Indeed, as a

Mazdiasnian, I felt quite ashamed that, having such undeniable and

unmistakable evidence before their eyes, the Zoroastrians of the present

day should not avail themselves of the opportunity offered of throwing

light upon their now entirely misunderstood and misinterpreted

Scriptures by the assistance and under the guidance of the Theosophical

Society.  If Zend scholars and students of Avesta would only care to

study and search for themselves, they would, perhaps, find to assist

them, men who are in possession of the right and only key to the true

esoteric wisdom;  men, who would be willing to guide and help them to

reach the true and hidden meaning, and to supply them with the missing

links that have resulted in such painful gaps as to leave the meaning

meaningless, and to create in the mind of the perplexed student doubts

that finally culminate in a thorough unbelief in his own religion.  Who

knows but they may find some of their own co-religionists, who, aloof

from the world, have to this day preserved the glorious truths of their

once mighty religion, and who, hidden in the recesses of solitary

mountains and unknown silent caves, are still in possession of;  and

exercising, mighty powers, the heirloom of the ancient Magi.  Our

Scriptures say that ancient Mobeds were Yogis, who had the power of

making themselves simultaneously visible at different places, even

though hundreds of miles apart, and also that they could heal the sick

and work that which would now appear to us miraculous.  All this was

considered facts but two or three centuries back, as no reader of old

books (mostly Persian) is unacquainted with, or will disbelieve a priori

unless his mind is irretrievably biassed by modern secular education.

The story about the Mobed and Emperor Akbar and of the latter's

conversion, is a well-known historical fact, requiring no proof.

 

I will first of all quote side by side the two passages referring to the

septenary nature of man as I find them in our Scriptures and the

THEOSOPHIST--

 

Sub-divisions of septenary        Sub-divisions of septenary

man according to the              man according to Yasna

Occultists.                       (chap.54, para. I).

 

1. The Physical body, com-        1. Tanwas-i.e., body(the

posed wholly of matter in its       self ) that consists of bones

grossest and most tangible         -grossest form of matter.

form.

 

2. The Vital principle-(or Jiva)-  2. Ushtanas-Vital heat

a form of force indestructible,        (or force).

and when disconnected with

one set of atoms, becoming

attracted immediately by others.

 

3. The Astral body (Linga-       3. Keherpas Aerial form,

sharira) composed of highly          the airy mould, (Per. Kaleb).

etherealized matter; in its

habitual passive state, the

perfect but very shadowy

duplicate of the body; its

activity, consolidation and

form depending entirely on

the Kama-rupa.

 

4. The Astral shape (Kama-        4. Tevishis-Will, or where

rupa or body of desire, a             sentient consciousness is

principle defining the con-          formed, also fore-knowledge.

figuration of--

 

5. The animal or Physical          5. Baodhas (in Sanskrit,

intelligence or Conscious-           Buddhi)-Body of physical

ness or Ego, analogous to,            consciousness, perception by

though proportionally higher          the senses or animal soul.

in the senses or the animal

degree than the reason,

instinct, memory, imagination

&c., existing in the higher

animals.

 

6. The Higher or Spiritual          6. Urawanem (Per. Rawan)

intelligence or consciousness,        -Soul, that which gets its

spiritual Ego, in which                or reward or punishment

mainly resides the sense of            after death.

consciousness in the perfect

man, though the lower dimmer

animal consciousness co-exists

in No. 5.

 

7. The Spirit-an emanation from       7. Frawashem or Farohar-

the ABSOLUTE uncreated; eternal;      Spirit (the guiding energy

a state rather than a being.          which is with every man,

                                      is absolutely independent,

                                      and, without mixing with

                                      any worldly object, leads

                                      man to good. The spark

                                      of divinity in every being).

 

 

The above is given in the Avesta as follows:--

 

"We declare and positively make known this (that) we offer (our) entire

property (which is) the body (the self consisting of) bones (tanwas),

vital heat (ushtanas), aerial form (keherpas), knowledge (tevishis),

consciousness (baodhas), soul (urwanem), and spirit (frawashem), to the

prosperous, truth-coherent (and) pure Gathas (prayers)."

 

The ordinary Gujarathi translation differs from Spiegel's, and this

latter differs very slightly from what is here given.  Yet in the

present translation there has been made no addition to, or omission

from, the original wording of the Zend text.  The grammatical

construction also has been preserved intact.  The only difference,

therefore, between the current translations and the one here given is

that ours is in accordance with the modern corrections of philological

research which make it more intelligible, and the idea perfectly clear

to the reader.

 

The word translated "aerial form" has come down to us without undergoing

any change in the meaning.  It is the modern Persian word kaleb, which

means a mould, a shape into which a thing is cast, to take a certain

form and features.  The next word is one about which there is a great

difference of opinion.  It is by some called strength, durability, i.e.,

that power which gives tenacity to and sustains the nerves.  Others

explain it as that quality in a man of rank and position which makes him

perceive the result of certain events (causes), and thus helps him in

being prepared to meet them.  This meaning is suggestive, though we

translate it as knowledge, or foreknowledge rather, with the greatest

diffidence.  The eighth word is quite clear.  That inward feeling which

tells a man that he knows this or that, that he has or can do certain

things--is perception and consciousness. It is the inner conviction,

knowledge and its possession.  The ninth word is again one which has

retained its meaning and has been in use up to the present day.  The

reader will at once recognize that it is the origin of the modern word

Rawan.  It is (metaphorically) the king, the conscious motor or agent in

man. It is that something which depends upon and is benefited or injured

by the foregoing attributes.  We say depends upon, because its progress

entirely consists in the development of those attributes.  If they are

neglected, it becomes weak and degenerated, and disappears.  If they

ascend on the moral and spiritual scale, it gains strength and vigour

and becomes more blended than ever to the Divine essence--the seventh

principle. But how does it become attracted toward its monad?  The tenth

word answers the question.  This is the Divine essence in man. But this

is only the irresponsible minister (this completes the metaphor).  The

real master is the king, the spiritual soul.  It must have the

willingness and power to see and follow the course pointed out by the

pure spirit.  The vizir's business is only to represent a point of

attraction, towards which the king should turn.  It is for the king to

see and act accordingly for the glory of his own self.  The minister or

spirit can neither compel nor constrain.  It inspires and electrifies

into action;  but to benefit by the inspiration, to take advantage of

it, is left to the option of the spiritual soul.

 

If, then, the Avesta contains such a passage, it must fairly be admitted

that its writers knew the whole doctrine concerning spiritual man.  We

cannot suppose that the ancient Mazdiasnians, the Magi, wrote this short

passage, without inferring from it, at the same time, that they were

thoroughly conversant with the whole of the occult theory about man.

And it looks very strange indeed, that modern Theosophists should now

preach to us the very same doctrines that must have been known and

taught thousands of years ago by the Mazdiasnians,--the passage is

quoted from one of their oldest writings.  And since they propound the

very same ideas, the meaning of which has well-nigh been lost even to

our most learned Mobeds, they ought to be credited at least with some

possession of a knowledge, the key to which has been revealed to them,

and lost to us, and which opens the door to the meaning of those

hitherto inexplicable sentences and doctrines in our old writings, about

which we are still, and will go on, groping in the dark, unless we

listen to what they have to tell us about them.

 

To show that the above is not a solitary instance, but that the Avesta

contains this idea in many other places, I will give another paragraph

which contains the same doctrine, though in a more condensed form than

the one just given.  Let the Parsi reader turn to Yasna, chapter 26, and

read the sixth paragraph, which runs as follows:--

 

We praise the life (ahum), knowledge (daenam), consciousness (baodhas),

soul (urwanem), and spirit (frawashem) of the first in religion, the

first teachers and hearers (learners), the holy men and holy women who

were the protectors of purity here (in this world).

 

Here the whole man is spoken of as composed of five parts, as under:--

 

                                      1. The Physical Body.

1. Ahum-Existence, Life.              2. The Vital Principle.

It includes:                          3. The Astral Body.

 

2. Daenam-Knowledge.                  4. The Astral shape or

                                         body of desire.

 

3. Baodhas-Consciousness.             5. The Animal or physical

                                         intelligence or

                                         consciousness or Ego.

 

4. Urwanem-Soul.                      6. The Higher or Spiritual

                                         intelligence or

                                         consciousness, or

                                         Spiritual Ego.

 

5. Frawashem-Spirit.                  7. The Spirit.

 

 

In this description the first triple group--viz., the bones (or the

gross matter), the vital force which keeps them together, and the

ethereal body, are included in one and called Existence, Life.  The

second part stands for the fourth principle of the septenary man, as

denoting the configuration of his knowledge or desires.*  Then the

three, consciousness (or animal soul), (spiritual) soul, and the pure

Spirit are the same as in the first quoted passage.  Why are these four

mentioned as distinct from each other and not consolidated like the

first part?  The sacred writings explain this by saying that on death

the first of these five parts disappears and perishes sooner or later in

the earth's atmosphere.  The gross elementary matter (the shell) has to

run within the earth's attraction;  so the ahum separates from the

higher portions and is lost.

 

---------

* Modern science also teaches that certain characteristics of features

indicate the possession of certain qualities in a man. The whole science

of physiognomy is founded on it.  One can predict the disposition of a

man from his features,--i.e., the features develop in accordance with

the idiosyncrasies, qualities and vices, knowledge or the ignorance of

man.

---------

 

The second (i.e., the fourth of the septenary group) remains, but not

with the spiritual soul.  It continues to hold its place in the vast

storehouse of the universe.  And it is this second daenam which stands

before the (spiritual) soul in the form of a beautiful maiden or an ugly

hag.  That which brings this daenam within the sight of the (spiritual)

soul is the third part (i.e., the fifth of the septenary group), the

baodhas.  Or in other words, the (spiritual) soul has with it, or in it,

the true consciousness by which it can view the experiences of its

physical career.  So this consciousness, this power or faculty which

brings the recollection, is always with, in other words, is a part and

parcel of, the soul itself;  hence, its not mixing with any other part,

and hence its existence after the physical death of man.*

 

--A Parsi F.T.S.

 

---------

* Our Brother has but to look into the oldest sacred hooks of China--

namely, the YI KING. or Book of Changes (translated by James Legge)

written 1,200 B.C., to find that same Septenary division of man

mentioned in that system of Divination.  Zhing, which is translated

correctly enough "essence," is the more subtle and pure part of matter--

the grosser form of the elementary ether;  Khi, or "spirit," is the

breath, still material but purer than the zhing, and is made of the

finer and more active form of ether.  In the hwun, or soul (animus) the

Khi predominates and the zhing (or zing) in the pho or animal soul. At

death the hwun (Or spiritual soul) wanders away, ascending, and the pho

(the root of the Tibetan word Pho-hat) descends and is changed into a

ghostly shade (the shell).  Dr. Medhurst thinks that "the Kwei Shans"

(see "Theology of the Chinese," pp. 10-12) are "the expanding and

contracting principles of human life!" "The Kwei Shans" are brought

about by the dissolution of the human frame--and consist of the

expanding and ascending Shan which rambles about in space, and of the

contracted and shrivelled Kwei, which reverts to earth and nonentity.

Therefore, the Kwei is the physical body;  the Shan is the vital

principle the Kwei Shan  the linga-sariram, or the vital soul;  Zhing

the fourth principle or Kama Rupa, the essence of will;  pho, the animal

soul;  Khi, the spiritual soul;  and Hwun the pure spirit--the seven

principles of our occult doctrine!--Ed. Theos.

---------

 

 

 

 

Brahmanism on the Sevenfold Principle in Man

 

 

It is now very difficult to say what was the real ancient Aryan

doctrine.  If an inquirer were to attempt to answer it by an analysis

and comparison of all the various systems of esotericism prevailing in

India, he will soon be lost in a maze of obscurity and uncertainty.  No

comparison between our real Brahmanical and the Tibetan esoteric

doctrines will be possible unless one ascertains the teachings of that

so-called "Aryan doctrine," and fully comprehends the whole range of the

ancient Aryan philosophy.  Kapila's "Sankhya," Patanjali's "Yog

philosophy," the different systems of "Saktaya" philosophy, the various

Agamas and Tantras are but branches of it.  There is a doctrine, though,

which is their real foundation, and which is sufficient to explain the

secrets of these various systems of philosophy and harmonize their

teachings.  It probably existed long before the Vedas were compiled, and

it was studied by our ancient Rishis in connection with the Hindu

scriptures.  It is attributed to one mysterious personage called

Maha.*.....

 

----------

* The very title of the present chief of the esoteric Himalayan

Brotherhood.--Ed. Theos.

----------

 

The Upanishads and such portions of the Vedas as are not chiefly devoted

to the public ceremonials of the ancient Aryans are hardly intelligible

without some knowledge of that doctrine. Even the real significance of

the grand ceremonials referred to in the Vedas will not be perfectly

apprehended without its light being throw  upon them.  The Vedas were

perhaps compiled mainly for the use of the priests assisting at public

ceremonies, but the grandest conclusions of our real secret doctrine are

therein mentioned.  I am informed by persons competent to judge of the

matter, that the Vedas have a distinct dual meaning--one expressed by

the literal sense of the words, the other indicated by the metre and the

swara (intonation), which are, as it were the life of the Vedas.

Learned Pundits and philologists of course deny that swara has anything

to do with philosophy or ancient esoteric doctrines;  but the mysterious

connection between swara and light is one of its most profound secrets.

 

Now, it is extremely difficult to show whether the Tibetans derived

their doctrine from the ancient Rishis of India, or the ancient

Brahrnans learned their occult science from the adepts of Tibet;  or,

again, whether the adepts of both countries professed originally the

same doctrine and derived it from a common source.*  If you were to go

to the Sramana Balagula, and question some of the Jain Pundits there

about the authorship of the Vedas and the origin of the Brahmanical

esoteric doctrine, they would probably tell you that the Vedas were

composed by Rakshasas** or Daityas, and that the Brahmans had derived

their secret knowledge from them.***

 

---------

* See Appendix, Note I.

 

** A kind of demons-devil.

 

*** And so would the Christian padris.  But they would never admit that

their "fallen angels" were borrowed from the Rakshasas;  that their

"devil" is the illegitimate son of Dewel, the Sinhalese female demon;

or that the "war in heaven" of the Apocalypse--the foundation of the

Christian dogma of the "Fallen Angels" was copied from the Hindu story

about Siva hurling the Tarakasura who rebelled against the gods into

Andhahkara, the abode of Darkness, according to Brahmanical Shastras.

---------

 

Do these assertions mean that the Vedas and the Brahmanical esoteric

teachings had their origin in the lost Atlantis--the continent that once

occupied a considerable portion of the expanse of the Southern and the

Pacific oceans?  The assertion in "Isis Unveiled," that Sanskrit was the

language of the inhabitants of the said continent, may induce one to

suppose that the Vedas had probably their origin there, wherever else

might be the birthplace of the Aryan esotericism.*  But the real

esoteric doctrine, as well as the mystic allegorical philosophy of the

Vedas, were derived from another source again, whatever that may be--

perchance from the divine inhabitants (gods) of the sacred island which

once existed in the sea that covered in days of old the sandy tract now

called Gobi Desert.  However that may be, the knowledge of the occult

powers of Nature possessed by the inhabitants of the lost Atlantis was

learnt by the ancient adepts of India, and was appended by them to the

esoteric doctrine taught by the residents of the sacred island.**  The

Tibetan adepts, however, have not accepted this addition to their

esoteric doctrine;  and it is in this respect that one should expect to

find a difference between the two doctrines.***

 

----------

* Not necessarily. (See Appendix, Note II.) It is generally held by

Occultists that Sanskrit has been spoken in Java and adjacent islands

from remote antiquity.--Ed. Theos.

 

** A locality which is spoken of to this day by the Tibetans, and called

by them "Scham-bha-la," the Happy Land. (See Appendix, Note III.)

 

*** To comprehend this passage fully, the reader must turn to vol. I.

pp. 589-594 of  "Isis Unveiled."

--------

 

The Brahmanical occult doctrine probably contains everything that was

taught about the powers of Nature and their laws, either in the

mysterious island of the North or in the equally mysterious continent of

the South.  And if you mean to compare the Aryan and the Tibetan

doctrines as regards their teachings about the occult powers of Nature,

you must beforehand examine all the classifications of these powers,

their laws and manifestations, and the real connotations of the various

names assigned to them in the Aryan doctrine.  Here are some of the

classifications contained in the Brahmanical system:

 

   I. As appertaining to Parabrahmam and existing in the MACROCOSM.

 

  II. As appertaining to man and existing in the MICROCOSM.

 

 III. For the purposes of d Taraka Yog or Pranava Yog.

 

  IV. For the purposes of Sankhya Yog (where they are, as it were,

      the inherent attributes of Prakriti).

 

   V. For the purposes of Hata Yog.

 

  VI. For the purposes of Koula Agama.

 

 VII. For the purposes of Sakta Agama.

 

VIII. For the purposes of Siva Aqama.

 

  IX. For the purposes of Sreechakram (the Sreechakram referred

      to in "Isis Unveiled" is not the real esoteric Sreechakram

      of the ancient adepts of Aryavarta).*

 

--------

* Very true. But who would be allowed to give out the "real" esoteric

one?--Ed. Theos.

--------

 

   X. In Atharvena Veda, &c.

 

In all these classifications subdivisions have been multiplied

indefinitely by conceiving new combinations of the Primary Powers in

different proportions.  But I must now drop this subject, and proceed to

consider the "Fragments of Occult Truth" (since embodied in "Esoteric

Buddhism").

 

I have carefully examined it, and find that the results arrived at (in

the Buddhist doctrine) do not differ much from the conclusions of our

Aryan philosophy, though our mode of stating the arguments may differ in

form.  I shall now discuss the question from my own standpoint, though,

following, for facility of comparison and convenience of discussion, the

sequence of classification of the sevenfold entities or principles

constituting man which is adopted in the "Fragments."  The questions

raised for discussion are (1) whether the disembodied spirits of human

beings (as they are called by Spiritualists) appear in the seance-rooms

and elsewhere;  and (2) whether the manifestations taking place are

produced wholly or partly through their agency.

 

It is hardly possible to answer these two questions satisfactorily

unless the meaning intended to be conveyed by the expression

"disembodied spirits of human beings" be accurately defined. The words

spiritualism and spirit are very misleading.  Unless English writers in

general, and Spiritualists in particular, first ascertain clearly the

connotation they mean to assign to the word spirit, there will be no end

of confusion, and the real nature of these so-called spiritualistic

phenomena and their modus occurrendi can never be clearly defined.

Christian writers generally speak of only two entities in man--the body,

and the soul or spirit (both seeming to mean the same thing to them).

European philosophers generally speak of body and mind, and argue that

soul or spirit cannot be anything else than mind. They are of opinion

that any belief in lingasariram* is entirely unphilosophical.  These

views are certainly incorrect, and are based on unwarranted assumptions

as to the possibilities of Nature, and on an imperfect understanding of

its laws.  I shall now examine (from the standpoint of the Brahmanical

esoteric doctrine) the spiritual constitution of man, the various

entities or principles existing in him, and ascertain whether either of

those entities entering into his composition can appear on earth after

his death, and if so, what it is that so appears.

 

--------

* The astral body, so called.

--------

 

Professor Tyndall in his excellent papers on what he calls the "Germ

Theory," comes to the following conclusions as the result of a series of

well-planned experiments:--Even in a very small volume of space there

are myriads of protoplasmic germs floating in ether.  If, for instance,

say water (clear water) is exposed to them, and if they fall into it,

some form of life or other will be evolved out of them.  Now, what are

the agencies for the bringing of this life into existence?  Evidently--

 

I. The water, which is the field, so to say, for the growth

of life.

 

II. The protoplasmic germ, out of which life or a living organism

is to be evolved or developed. And lastly--

 

III. The power, energy, force, or tendency which springs into activity

at the touch or combination of the protoplasmic germ and the water, and

which evolves or develops life and its natural attributes.

 

Similarly, there are three primary causes which bring the human being

into existence.  I shall call them, for the purpose of discussion, by

the following names

 

(1) Parabrahmam, the Universal Spirit.

 

(2) Sakti, the crown of the astral light, combining in itself all the

powers of Nature.

 

(3) Prakriti, which in its original or primary shape is represented by

Akasa.  (Really every form of matter is finally reducible to Akasa.)*

 

It is ordinarily stated that Prakriti or Akasa is the Kshetram, or the

basis which corresponds to water in the example we have taken Brahmam

the germ, and Sakti, the power or energy that comes into existence at

their union or contact.**

 

--------

* The Tibetan esoteric Buddhist doctrine teaches that Prakriti is cosmic

matter, out of which all visible forms are produced;  and Akasa, that

same cosmic matter, but still more subjective--its spirit, as it were.

Prakriti being the body or substance, and Akasa Sakti its soul or

energy.

 

** Or, in other words, "Prakriti, Swabhavat, or Akasa, is SPACE, as the

Tibetans have it;  Space filled with whatsoever substance or no

substance at all--i.e., with substance so imperceptible as to be only

metaphysically conceivable.  Brahman, then, would be the germ thrown

into the soil of that field, and Sakti, that mysterious energy or force

which develops it, and which is called by the Buddhist Arahat of Tibet,

FOHAT.  That which we call form (rupa) is not different from that which

we call space (sunyata)....  Space is not different from form.  Form is

the same as space;  space is the same as form.  And so with the other

skandhas, whether vedana, or sanjna, or sanskara, or vijnana, they are

each the same as their opposite." .... (Book of Sin-king, or the "Heart

Sutra." Chinese translation of the "Maha-Prajna-Paramita-Hridaya-Sutra,"

chapter on the "Avalokiteshwara," or the manifested Buddha.)  So that

the Aryan and Tibetan or Arhat doctrines agree perfectly in substance,

differing but in names given and the way of putting it.

---------

 

But this is not the view which the Upanishads take of the question.

According to them, Brahamam* is the Kshetram or basis, Akasa or

Prakriti, the germ or seed, and Sakti, the power evolved by their union

or contact.  And this is the real scientific, philosophical mode of

stating the case.

 

--------

* See Appendix, Note IV.

--------

 

Now, according to the adepts of ancient Aryavarta, seven principles are

evolved out of these three primary entities. Algebra teaches us that the

number of combinations of n things, taken one at a time, two at a time,

three at a time, and so forth = 2(n)-1.

 

Applying this formula to the present case, the number of entities

evolved from different combinations of these three primary causes

amounts to 2(3)-1 = 8-1 = 7.

 

As a general rule, whenever seven entities are mentioned in the ancient

occult science of India, in any connection whatsoever, you must suppose

that those seven entities came into existence from three primary

entities;  and that these three entities, again, are evolved out of a

single entity or MONAD.  To take a familiar example, the seven coloured

rays in the solar ray are evolved out of three primary coloured rays;

and the three primary colours coexist with the four secondary colours in

the solar rays.  Similarly, the three primary entities which brought man

into existence co-exist in him with the four secondary entities which

arose from different combinations of the three primary entities.

 

Now these seven entities, which in their totality constitute man, are as

follows.  I shall enumerate them in the order adopted in the

"Fragments," as far as the two orders (the Brahmanical and the Tibetan)

coincide:--

 

                                 Corresponding names in

                                  Esoteric Buddhism.

 

I. Prakriti.                      Sthulasariram

(Physical Body).

 

II. The entity evolved

out of the combination            Sukshmasariram or Lingasariram

of Prakriti and Sakti.             (Astral Body).

 

III. Sakti.                       Kamarupa (the Perispirit).

 

IV. The entity evolved out

of the combination of             Jiva (Life-Soul).

Brahmam, Sakti and

Prakriti.

 

V. The entity evolved out

of the combination of             Physical Intelligence (or

Brahmam and Prakriti.              animal soul).

 

 

 

VI. The entity evolved

out of the combination of         Spiritual Intelligence (or Soul).

Brahmam and Sakti.

 

VII. Brahmam.                     The emanation from the ABSOLUTE,

                                   &c. (or pure spirit.)

 

Before proceeding to examine these nature of these seven entities, a few

general explanations are indispensably necessary.

 

I. The secondary principles arising out of the combination of primary

principles are quite different in their nature from the entities out of

whose combination they came into existence.  The combinations in

question are not of the nature of mere mechanical juxtapositions, as it

were.  They do not even correspond to chemical combinations.

Consequently no valid inferences as regards the nature of the

combinations in question can be drawn by analogy from the nature

[variety?] of these combinations.

 

II. The general proposition, that when once a cause is removed its

effect vanishes, is not universally applicable.  Take, for instance, the

following example:--If you once communicate a certain amount of momentum

to a ball, velocity of a particular degree in a particular direction is

the result.  Now, the cause of this motion ceases to exist when the

instantaneous sudden impact or blow which conveyed the momentum is

completed;  but according to Newton's first law of motion, the ball will

continue to move on for ever and ever, with undiminished velocity in the

same direction, unless the said motion is altered, diminished,

neutralized, or counteracted by extraneous causes.  Thus, if the ball

stop, it will not be on account of the absence of the cause of its

motion, but in consequence of the existence of extraneous causes which

produce the said result.

 

Again, take the instance of subjective phenomena.

 

Now the presence of this ink-bottle before me is producing in me, or in

my mind, a mental representation of its form, volume, colour and so

forth.

 

The bottle in question may be removed, but still its mental picture may

continue to exist.  Here, again, you see, the effect survives the cause.

Moreover, the effect may at any subsequent time be called into conscious

existence, whether the original cause be present or not.

 

Now, in the ease of the filth principle above mentioned-the entity that

came into existence by the combination of Brahmam and Prakriti--if the

general proposition (in the "Fragments of Occult Truth") is correct,

this principle, which corresponds to the physical intelligence, must

cease to exist whenever the Brahmam or the seventh Principle should

cease to exist for the particular individual;  but the fact is certainly

otherwise.  The general proposition under consideration is adduced in

the "Fragments" in support of the assertion that whenever the seventh

principle ceases to exist for any particular individual, the sixth

principle also ceases to exist for him.  The assertion is undoubtedly

true, though the mode of stating it and the reasons assigned for it, are

to my mind objectionable.

 

It is said that in cases where tendencies of a man's mind are entirely

material, and all spiritual aspirations and thoughts were altogether

absent from his mind, the seventh principle leaves him either before or

at the time of death, and the sixth principle disappears with it.  Here,

the very proposition that the tendencies of the particular individual's

mind are entirely material, involves the assertion that there is no

spiritual intelligence or spiritual Ego in him, it should then have been

said that, whenever spiritual intelligence ceases to exist in any

particular individual, the seventh principle ceases to exist for that

particular individual for all purposes.  Of course, it does not fly off

anywhere.  There can never be any thing like a change of position in the

case of Brahmam.*  The assertion merely means that when there is no

recognition whatever of Brahmam, or spirit, or spiritual life, or

spiritual consciousness, the seventh principle has ceased to exercise

any influence or control over the individual's destinies.

 

--------

* True--from the standpoint of Aryan Exotericism and the Upanishads, not

quite so in the case of the Arahat or Tibetan esoteric doctrine;  and it

is only on this one solitary point that the two teachings disagree, as

far as we know.  The difference is very trifling, though, resting as it

does solely upon the two various methods of viewing the one and the same

thing from two different aspects.  (See Appendix, Note IV.)

--------

 

I shall now state what is meant (in the Aryan doctrine) by the seven

principles above enumerated.

 

I. Prakriti.  This is the basis of Sthulasariram, and represents it in

the above-mentioned classification.

 

II. Prakriti and Sakti.  This is the Lingasariram, or astral body.

 

III. Sukti.  This principle corresponds to your Kamarupa. This power or

force is placed by ancient occultists in the Nabhichakram.  This power

can gather akasa or prakriti, and mould it into any desired shape.  It

has very great sympathy with the fifth principle, and can be made to act

by its influence or control.

 

IV. Brahmam and Sakti, and Prakriti.  This again corresponds to your

second principle, Jiva.

 

This power represents the universal life-principle which exists in

Nature.  Its seat is the Anahatachakram (heart).  It is a force or power

which constitutes what is called Jiva, or life. It is, as you say,

indestructible, and its activity is merely transferred at the time of

death to another set of atoms, to form another organism.

 

V. Brahma and Prakriti.  This, in our Aryan philosophy, corresponds to

your fifth principle, called the physical intelligence.  According to

our philosophers, this is the entity in which what is called mind has

its seat or basis.  This is the most difficult principle of all to

explain, and the present discussion entirely turns upon the view we take

of it.

 

Now, what is mind?  It is a mysterious something, which is considered to

be the seat of consciousness--of sensations, emotions, volitions, and

thoughts.  Psychological analysis shows it to be apparently a congeries

of mental states, and possibilities of mental states, connected by what

is called memory, and considered to have a distinct existence apart from

any of its particular states or ideas.  Now in what entity has this

mysterious something its potential or actual existence? Memory and

expectation, which form, as it were, the real foundation of what is

called individuality, or Ahankaram, must have their seat of existence

somewhere.  Modern psychologists of Europe generally say that the

material substance of brain is the seat of mind;  and that past

subjective experiences, which can he recalled by memory, and which in

their totality constitute what is called individuality, exist therein in

the shape of certain unintelligible mysterious impressions and changes

in the nerves and nerve-centres of the cerebral hemispheres.

Consequently, they say, the mind--the individual mind--is destroyed when

the body is destroyed;  so there is no possible existence after death.

 

But there are a few facts among those admitted by these philosophers

which are sufficient for us to demolish their theory.  In every portion

of the human body a constant change goes on without intermission.  Every

tissue, every muscular fibre and nerve-tube, and every ganglionic centre

in the brain, is undergoing an incessant change.  In the course of a

man's lifetime there may be a series of complete tranformations of the

substance of his brain.  Nevertheless, the memory of his past mental

states remains unaltered.  There may be additions of new subjective

experiences and some mental states may be altogether forgotten, but no

individual mental state is altered.  The person's sense of personal

identity remains the same throughout these constant alterations in the

brain substance.*  It is able to survive all these changes, and it can

survive also the complete destruction of the material substance of the

brain.

 

--------

* This is also sound Buddhist philosophy, the transformation in

question being known as the change of the skandhas.--Ed. Theos.

--------

 

This individuality arising from mental consciousness has its seat of

existence, according to our philosophers, in an occult power or force,

which keeps a registry, as it were, of all our mental impressions.  The

power itself is indestructible, though by the operation of certain

antagonistic causes its impressions may in course of time be effaced, in

part or wholly.

 

I may mention in this connection that our philosophers have

associated seven occult powers with the seven principles or entities

above-mentioned.  These seven occult powers in the microcosm correspond

with, or are the counterparts of, the occult powers in the macrocosm.

The mental and spiritual consciousness of the individual becomes the

general consciousness of Brahmam, when the barrier of individuality is

wholly removed, and when the seven powers in the microcosm are placed

en rapport with the seven powers in the macrocosm.

 

There is nothing very strange in a power, or force, or sakti, carrying

with it impressions of sensations, ideas, thoughts, or other subjective

experiences.  It is now a well-known fact, that an electric or magnetic

current can convey in some mysterious manner impressions of sound or

speech, with all their individual peculiarities;  similarly, I can

convey my thoughts to you by a transmission of energy or power.

 

Now, this fifth principle represents in our philosophy the mind, or, to

speak more correctly, the power or force above described, the

impressions of the mental states therein, and the notion of

self-identity or Ahankaram generated by their collective operation.

This principle is called merely physical intelligence in the

"Fragments."  I do not know what is really meant by this expression.  It

may be taken to mean that intelligence which exists in a very low state

of development in the lower animals. Mind may exist in different stages

of development, from the very lowest forms of organic life, where the

signs of its existence or operation can hardly be distinctly realized,

up to man, in whom it reaches its highest state of development.

 

In fact, from the first appearance of life* up to Tureeya Avastha, or

the state of Nirvana, the progress is, as it were, continuous.

 

--------

* In the Aryan doctrine, which blends Brahmam, Sakti, and Prakriti in

one, it is the fourth principle then, in the Buddhist esotericisms the

second in combination with the first.

--------

 

We ascend from that principle up to the seventh by almost imperceptible

gradations.  But four stages are recognized in the progress where the

change is of a peculiar kind, and is such as to arrest an observer's

attention.  These four stages are as follows:--

 

(1) Where life (fourth principle) makes its appearance.

 

(2) Where the existence of mind becomes perceptible in conjunction with

life.

 

(3) Where the highest state of mental abstraction ends, and spiritual

consciousness commences.

 

(4) Where spiritual consciousness disappears, leaving the seventh

principle in a complete state of Nirvana, or nakedness.

 

According to our philosophers, the fifth principle under consideration

is intended to represent the mind in every possible state of

development, from the second stage up to the third stage.

 

IV. Brahmam and Sakti.  This principle corresponds to your "spiritual

intelligence."  It is, in fact, Buddhi (I use the word Buddhi not in the

ordinary sense, but in the sense in which it is used by our ancient

philosophers);  in other words, it is the seat of Bodha or Atmabodha.

One who has Atmabodha in its completeness is a Buddha.  Buddhists know

very well what this term signifies.  This principle is described in the

"Fragments" as  an entity coming into existence by the combination of

Brahmam and Prakriti.   I do not again know in what particular sense the

word Prakriti is used in this connection.  According to our philosophers

it is an entity arising from the union of Brahmam and Sakti.  I have

already explained the connotation attached by our philosophers to the

words Prakriti and Sakti.

 

I stated that Prakriti in its primary state is Akasa.*

 

If Akasa be considered to be Sakti or power** then my statement as

regards the ultimate state of Prakriti is likely to give rise to

confusion and misapprehension unless I explain the distinction between

Akasa and Sakti.  Akasa is not, properly speaking, the crown of the

astral light, nor does it by itself constitute any of the six primary

forces.  But, generally speaking, whenever any phenomenal result is

produced, Sakti acts in conjunction with Akasa.  And, moreover, Akasa

serves as a basis or Adhishthanum for the transmission of force currents

and for the formation or generation of force or power correlations.***

 

--------

* According to the Buddhists, in Akasa lies that eternal, potential

energy whose function it is to evolve all visible things out of

itself.--Ed. Theos.

 

** It was never so considered, as we have shown it.  But as the

"Fragments" are written in English, a language lacking such an abundance

of metaphysical terms to express ever minute change of form, substance

and state as are found in the Sanskrit, it was deemed useless to confuse

the Western reader, untrained in the methods of Eastern expression, more

than is necessary, with a too nice distinctions of proper technical

terms.  As "Prakriti in its primary state is Akasa," and Sakti "is an

attribute AKASA," it becomes evident that for the uninitiated it is all

one.  Indeed, to speak of the "union of Brahmam and Prakriti" instead of

"Brahmam and Sakti" is no worse than for a theist to write that "That

man has come into existence by the combination of spirit and matter,"

whereas, his word, framed in an orthodox shape, ought to read "man is a

living soul was created by the power (or breath) of God over matter."

 

*** That is to say, the Aryan Akasa is another word for Buddhist SPACE

(in its metaphysical meaning).--Ed. Theos.

---------

 

In Mantrasastra the letter Ha represents Akasa, and you will find that

this syllable enters into most of the sacred formula intended to be used

in producing phenomenal results.  But by itself it does not represent

any Sakti.  You may, if you please, call Sakti an attribute of Akasa.

 

I do not think that, as regards the nature of this principle, there can

in reality exist any difference of opinion between the Buddhist and

Brahmanical philosophers.

 

Buddhist and Brahmanical initiates know very well that mysterious

circular mirror composed of two hemispheres which reflects as it were

the rays emanating from the "burning bush" and the blazing star--the

spiritual sun Shining in CHIDAKASAM.

 

The spiritual impressions constituting this principle have their

existence in an occult power associated with the entity in question.

The successive incarnations of Buddha, in fact, mean the successive

transfers of this mysterious power, or the impressions thereof.  The

transfer is only possible when the Mahatma* who transfers it has

completely identified himself with his seventh principle, has

annihilated his Ahankaram, and reduced it to ashes in CHIDAGNIKUNDUM,

and has succeeded in making his thoughts correspond with the eternal

laws of Nature and in becoming a co-worker with Nature.  Or, to put the

same thing in other words, when he has attained the state of Nirvana,

the condition of final negation, negation of individual, or separate

existence.**

 

---------

* The highest adept.

 

* In the words of Agatha in the "Maha-pari-Nirvana Sutra,"

     "We reach a condition of rest

     Beyond the limit of any human knowledge"

--Ed. Theos.

---------

 

VII. Atma.--The emanation from the absolute, corresponding to the

seventh principle.  As regards this entity there exists positively no

real difference of opinion between the Tibetan Buddhist adepts and our

ancient Rishis.

 

We must now consider which of these entities can appear after the

individual's death in seance-rooms and produce the so-called

spiritualistic phenomena.

 

Now, the assertion of the Spiritualists, that the "disembodied spirits"

of particular human beings appear in seance-rooms, necessarily implies

that the entity that so appears bears the stamp of some particular

personality.

 

So, we have to ascertain beforehand in what entity or entities

personality has its seat of existence.  Apparently it exists in the

person's particular formation of body, and in his subjective experiences

(called his mind in their totality).  On the death of the individual his

body is destroyed;  his lingasariram being decomposed, the power

associated with it becomes mingled in the current of the corresponding

power in the macrocosm. Similarly, the third and fourth principles are

mingled with their corresponding powers.  These entities may again enter

into the composition of other organisms.  As these entities bear no

impression of personality, the Spiritualists have no right to say that

the disembodied spirit of the human being has appeared in the

seance-room whenever any of these entities may appear there. In fact,

they have no means of ascertaining that they belonged to any particular

individual.

 

Therefore, we must only consider whether any of the last three entities

appear in seance-rooms to amuse or to instruct Spiritualists.  Let us

take three particular examples of individuals, and see what becomes of

these three principles after death.

 

I. One in whom spiritual attachments have greater force than terrestrial

attachments.

 

II. One in whom spiritual aspirations do exist, but are merely of

secondary importance to him, his terrestrial interests occupying the

greater share of his attention.

 

III. One in whom there exists no spiritual aspirations whatsoever, one

whose spiritual Ego is dead or non-existent to his apprehension.

 

We need not consider the case of a complete adept in this connection.

In the first two cases, according to our supposition, spiritual and

mental experiences exist together;  when spiritual consciousness exists,

the existence of the seventh principle being recognized, it maintains

its connection with the fifth and sixth principles.  But the existence

of terrestrial attachments creates the necessity of Punarjanmam

(re-birth), the latter signifying the evolution of a new set of

objective and subjective experiences, constituting a new combination of

surrounding circumstances, or, in other words, a new world.  The period

between death and the next subsequent birth is occupied with the

preparation required for the evolution of these new experiences.  During

the period of incubation, as you call it, the spirit will never of its

own accord appear in this world, nor can it so appear.

 

There is a great law in this universe which consists in the reduction of

subjective experiences to objective phenomena, and the evolution of the

former from the latter.  This is otherwise called "cyclic necessity."

Man is subjected to this law if he do not check and counterbalance the

usual destiny or fate, and he can only escape its control by subduing

all his terrestrial attachments completely.  The new combination of

circumstances under which he will then be placed may be better or worse

than the terrestrial conditions under which he lived;  but in his

progress to a new world, you may be sure he will never turn around to

have a look at his spiritualistic friends.

 

In the third of the above three cases there is, by our supposition, no

recognition of spiritual consciousness or of spirits;  so they are

non-existing so far as he is concerned.  The case is similar to that of

an organ or faculty which remains unused for a long time.  It then

practically ceases to exist.

 

These entities, as it were, remain his, or in his possession, when they

are stamped with the stamp of recognition.  When such is not the case,

the whole of his individuality is centred in his fifth principle.  And

after death this fifth principle is the only representative of the

individual in question.

 

By itself it cannot evolve for itself a new set of objective

experiences, or, to say the same thing in other words, it has no

punarjanmam.  It is such an entity that can appear in seance-rooms;  but

it is absurd to call it a disembodied spirit.* It is merely a power or

force retaining the impressions of the thoughts or ideas of the

individual into whose composition it originally entered.  It sometimes

summons to its aid the Kamarupa power, and creates for itself some

particular ethereal form (not necessarily human).

 

--------

* It is especially on this point that the Aryan and Arahat doctrines

quite agree.  The teaching and argument that follow are in every respect

those of the Buddhist Himalayan Brotherhood.--Ed. Theos.

--------

 

Its tendencies of action will be similar to those of the individual's

mind when he was living.  This entity maintains its existence so long as

the impressions on the power associated with the fifth principle remain

intact.  In course of time they are effaced, and the power in question

is then mixed up in the current of its corresponding power in the

MACROCOSM, as the river loses itself in the sea.  Entities like these

may afford signs of there having been considerable intellectual power in

the individuals to which they belonged;  because very high intellectual

power may co-exist with utter absence of spiritual consciousness.  But

from this circumstance it cannot be argued that either the spirits or

the spiritual Egos of deceased individuals appear in seance-rooms.

 

There are some people in India who have thoroughly studied the nature of

such entities (called Pisacham).  I do not know much about them

experimentally, as I have never meddled with this disgusting,

profitless, and dangerous branch of investigation.

 

The Spiritualists do not know what they are really doing.  Their

investigations are likely to result in course of time either in wicked

sorcery or in the utter spiritual ruin of thousands of men and women.*

 

--------

* We share entirely in this idea.--Ed. Theos.

--------

 

The views I have herein expressed have been often illustrated by our

ancient writers by comparing the course of a man's life or existence to

the orbital motion of a planet round the sun. Centripetal force is

spiritual attraction, and centrifugal terrestrial attraction.  As the

centripetal force increases in magnitude in comparison with the

centrifugal force, the planet approaches the sun--the individual reaches

a higher plane of existence.  If, on the other hand, the centrifugal

force becomes greater than the centripetal force, the planet is removed

to a greater distance from the sun, and moves in a new orbit at that

distance--the individual comes to a lower level of existence. These are

illustrated in the first two instances I have noticed above.

 

We have only to consider the two extreme cases.

 

When the planet in its approach to the sun passes over the line where

the centripetal and centrifugal force completely neutralize each other,

and is only acted on by the centripetal force, it rushes towards the sun

with a gradually increasing velocity, and is finally mixed up with the

mass of the sun's body. This is the case of a complete adept.

 

Again, when the planet in its retreat from the sun reaches a point where

the centrifugal force becomes all-powerful, it flies off in a tangential

direction from its orbit, and goes into the depths of void space.  When

it ceases to be under the control of the sun, it gradually gives up its

generative heat, and the creative energy that it originally derived from

the sun, and remains a cold mass of material particles wandering through

space until the mass is completely decomposed into atoms.  This cold

mass is compared to the fifth principle under the conditions above

noticed, and the heat, light, and energy that left it are compared to

the sixth and seventh principles.

 

Either after assuming a new orbit or in its course of deviation from the

old orbit to the new, the planet can never go back to any point in its

old orbit, as the various orbits lying in different planes never

intersect each other.

 

This figurative representation correctly explains the ancient

Brahmanical theory on the subject.  It is merely a branch of what is

called the Great Law of the Universe by the ancient mystics.

 

--T. Subba Row

 

 

 

Appendix

 

 

Note I.

 

In this connection it will be well to draw the reader's attention to the

fact that the country called "Si-dzang" by the Chinese, and Tibet by

Western geographers, is mentioned in the oldest books preserved in the

province of Fo-kien (the headquarters of the aborigines of China) as the

great seat of occult learning in the archaic ages.  According to these

records, it was inhabited by the "Teachers of Light," the "Sons of

Wisdom" and the "Brothers of the Sun."  The Emperor Yu the "Great" (2207

B.C.), a pious mystic, is credited with having obtained his occult

wisdom and the system of theocracy established by him--for he was the

first one to unite in China ecclesiastical power with temporal

authority--from Si-dzang.  That system was the same as with the old

Egyptians and the Chaldees;  that which we know to have existed in the

Brahmanical period in India, and to exist now in Tibet--namely, all the

learning, power, the temporal as well as the secret wisdom were

concentrated within the hierarchy of the priests and limited to their

caste.  Who were the aborigines of Tibet is a question which no

ethnographer is able to answer correctly at present.  They practice the

Bhon religion, their sect is a pre-and anti-Buddhistic one, and they

are to be found mostly in the province of Kam.  That is all that is

known of them.  But even that would justify the supposition that they

are the greatly degenerated descendants of mighty and wise forefathers.

Their ethnical type shows that they are not pure Turanians, and their

rites--now those of sorcery, incantations, and Nature-worship--remind

one far more of the popular rites of the Babylonians, as found in the

records preserved on the excavated cylinders, than of the religious

practices of the Chinese sect of Tao-sse (a religion based upon pure

reason and spirituality), as alleged by some.  Generally, little or no

difference is made, even by the Kyelang missionaries, who mix greatly

with these people on the borders of British Lahoul and ought to know

better, between the Bhons and the two rival Buddhist sects, the Yellow

Caps and the Red Caps.  The latter of these have opposed the reform of

Tzong-ka-pa from the first, and have always adhered to old Buddhism, so

greatly mixed up now with the practices of the Bhons.  Were our

Orientalists to know more of them, and compare the ancient Babylonian

Bel or Baal worship with the rites of the Bhons, they would find an

undeniable connection between the two.  To begin an argument here,

proving the origin of the aborigines of Tibet as connected with one of

the three great races which superseded each other in Babylonia, whether

we call them the Akkadians (a name invented by F. Lenormant), or the

primitive Turanians, Chaldees, and Assyrians, is out of the question.

Be it as it may, there is reason to call the trans-Himalayan esoteric

doctrine Chaldeo-Tibetan.  And when we remember that the Vedas came,

agreeably to all traditions, from the Mansarawara Lake in Tibet, and the

Brahmins themselves from the far North, we are justified in looking on

the esoteric doctrines of every people who once had or still has it, as

having proceeded from one and the same source;  and to thus call it the

"Aryan-Chaldeo-Tibetan" doctrine, or Universal Wisdom-Religion. "Seek

for the Lost Word among the hierophants of Tartary, China, and Tibet,"

was the advice of Swedenborg the seer.

 

Note II.

 

Not necessarily, we say.  The Vedas, Brahmanism, and along with these,

Sanskrit, were importations into what we now regard as India.  They were

never indigenous to its soil.  There was a time when the ancient nations

of the West included under the generic name of India many of the

countries of Asia now classified under other names.  There was an Upper,

a Lower, and a Western India, even during the comparatively late period

of Alexander;  and Persia (Iran) is called Western India in some ancient

classics. The countries now named Tibet, Mongolia, and Great Tartary

were considered by them as forming part of India.  When we say,

therefore, that India has civilized the world, and was the Alma Mater of

the civilizations, arts, and sciences of all other nations (Babylonia,

and perhaps even Egypt, included), we mean archaic, pre-historic India,

India of the time when the great Gobi was a sea, and the lost "Atlantis"

formed part of an unbroken continent which began at the Himalayas and

ran down over Southern India, Ceylon, and Java, to far-away Tasmania.

 

Note III.

 

To ascertain such disputed questions, one has to look into and study

well the Chinese sacred and historical records--a people whose era

begins nearly 4,600 years back (2697 B.C.).  A people so accurate, and

by whom some of the most important inventions of modern Europe and its

so much boasted modern science were anticipated--such as the compass,

gunpowder, porcelain, paper, printing, &c.--known and practiced

thousands of years before these were rediscovered by the Europeans,

ought to receive some trust for their records.  And from Lao-tze down to

Hiouen-Thsang their literature is filled with allusions and references

to that island and the wisdom of the Himalayan adepts.  In the "Catena

of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese," by the Rev. Samuel Beal, there

is a chapter "On the TIAN-TA'I School of Buddhism" (pp. 244-258) which

our opponents ought to read.  Translating the rules of that most

celebrated and holy school and sect in China founded by Chin-che-K'hae,

called Che-chay (the Wise One), in the year 575 of our era, when coming

to the sentence which reads "That which relates to the one garment

(seamless) worn by the GREAT TEACHERS OF THE SNOWY MOUNTAINS, the school

of the Haimavatas" (p. 256), the European translator places after the

last sentence a sign of interrogation, as well he may.  The statistics

of the school of the "Haimavatas," or of our Himalayan Brotherhood, are

not to be found in the general census records of India.  Further, Mr.

Beal translates a rule relating to "the great professors of the higher

order who live in mountain depths remote from men," the Aranyakas, or

hermits.

 

So, with respect to the traditions concerning this island, and apart

from the (to them) historical records of this preserved in the Chinese

and Tibetan sacred books, the legend is alive to this day among the

people of Tibet.  The fair island is no more, but the country where it

once bloomed remains there still, and the spot is well known to some of

the "great teachers of the Snowy Mountains," however much convulsed and

changed its topography by the awful cataclysm.  Every seventh year these

teachers are believed to assemble in SCHAM-BHA-LA, the "Happy Land."

According to the general belief it is situated in the north-west of

Tibet.  Some place it within the unexplored central regions,

inaccessible even to the fearless nomadic tribes;  others hem it in

between the range of the Gangdisri Mountains and the northern edge of

the Gobi desert, south and north, and the more populated regions of

Khoondooz and Kashmir, of the Gya-Pheling (British India), and China,

west and east, which affords to the curious mind a pretty large latitude

to locate it in.  Others still place it between Namur Nur and the

Kuen-Lun Mountains, but one and all firmly believe in Scham-bha-la, and

speak of it as a fertile fairy-like land once an island, now an oasis of

incomparable beauty, the place of meeting of the inheritors of the

esoteric wisdom of the god-like inhabitants of the legendary island.

 

In connection with the archaic legend of the Asian Sea and the Atlantic

Continent, is it not profitable to note a fact known to all modern

geologists-that the Himalayan slopes afford geological proof that the

substance of those lofty peaks was once a part of an ocean floor?

 

Note IV.

 

We have already pointed out that, in our opinion, the whole difference

between Buddhistic and Vedantic philosophies was that the former was a

kind of Rationalistic Vedantism, while the latter might be regarded as

transcendental Buddhism.  If the Aryan esotericism applies the term

jivatma to the seventh principle--the pure and per se unconscious

spirit--it is because the Vedanta, postulating three kinds of

existence--(1) the paramarthika (the true, the only real one), (2) the

vyavaharika (the practical), and (3) the pratibhasika (the apparent or

illusory life)--makes the first life or jiva, the only truly existent

one.  Brahma, or the ONE'S SELF, is its only representative in the

universe, as it is the universal Life in toto, while the other two are

but its "phenomenal appearances," imagined and created by ignorance, and

complete illusions suggested to us by our blind senses.  The Buddhists,

on the other hand, deny either subjective or objective reality even to

that one Self-Existence.  Buddha declares that there is neither Creator

nor an Absolute Being.  Buddhist rationalism was ever too alive to the

insuperable difficulty of admitting one absolute consciousness, as in

the words of Flint, "wherever there is consciousness there is relation,

and wherever there is relation there is dualism."  The ONE LIFE is

either "MUKTA" (absolute and unconditioned), and can have no relation to

anything nor to any one;  or it is "BADDHA" (bound and conditioned), and

then it cannot be called the absolute;  the limitation, moreover,

necessitating another deity as powerful as the first to account for all

the evil in this world.  Hence, the Arahat secret doctrine on cosmogony

admits but of one absolute, indestructible, eternal, and uncreated

UNCONSCIOUSNESS (so to translate) of an element (the word being used for

want of a better term) absolutely independent of everything else in the

universe;  a something ever present or ubiquitous, a Presence which ever

was, is, and will be, whether there is a God, gods, or none, whether

there is a universe, or no universe, existing during the eternal cycles

of Maha Yugs, during the Pralayas as during the periods of Manvantara,

and this is SPACE, the field for the operation of the eternal Forces and

natural Law, the basis (as Mr. Subba Row rightly calls it) upon which

take place the eternal intercorrelations of Akasa-Prakriti;  guided by

the unconscious regular pulsations of Sakti, the breath or power of a

conscious deity, the theists would say;  the eternal energy of an

eternal, unconscious Law, say the Buddhists.  Space, then, or "Fan,

Bar-nang" (Maha Sunyata) or, as it is called by Lao-tze, the "Emptiness,"

is the nature of the Buddhist Absolute.  (See Confucius' "Praise of the

Abyss.")  The word jiva, then, could never be applied by the Arahats to

the Seventh Principle, since it is only through its correlation or

contact with matter that Fo-hat (the Buddhist active energy) can

develop active conscious life;  and that to the question "how can

unconsciousness generate consciousness?" the answer would be:  "Was the

seed which generated a Bacon or a Newton self-conscious?"

 

Note V.

 

To our European readers, deceived by the phonetic similarity, it must

not be thought that the name "Brahman" is identical in this connection

with Brahma or Iswara, the personal God.  The Upanishads--the Vedanta

Scriptures--mention no such God, and one would vainly seek in them any

allusions to a conscious deity. The Brahman, or Parabrahm, the absolute

of the Vedantins, is neuter and unconscious, and has no connection with

the masculine Brahma of the Hindu Triad, or Trimurti.  Some Orientalists

rightly believe the name derived from the verb "Brih," to grow or

increase, and to be in this sense the universal expansive force of

Nature, the vivifying and spiritual principle or power spread throughout

the universe, and which, in its collectivity, is the one Absoluteness,

the one Life and the only Reality.

 

--H.P. Blavatsky

 

 

 

 

Septenary Division in Different Indian Systems

 

 

We give below in a tabular form the classifications, adopted by

Buddhist and by Vedantic teachers, of the principles in man:--

 

Classification in      Vedantic         Classification in

Esoteric Buddhism    Classification      Taraka Raja Yoga

 

(1.) Sthula sarira      Annamaya kosa       Sthulopadhi

 

(2.) Prana

                        Pranamaya kosa

(3.)The Vehicle

       of Prana

 

(4.) Kama rupa

   (a) Volitions        Manomaya kosa

(5.) Mind/& feelings &c.                    Sukshmopadhi

   (b) Vignanam         Vignanamayakosa

 

(6.) Spiritual Soul     Anandamayakosa      Karanopadhi

 

(7.) Atma               Atma                Atma

 

From the foregoing table it will be seen that the third principle in the

Buddhist classification is not separately mentioned in the Vedantic

division as it is merely the vehicle of prana.  It will also be seen

that the fourth principle is included in the third kosa (sheath), as the

said principle is but the vehicle of will-power, which is but an energy

of the mind.  It must also be noticed that the Vignanamayakosa is

considered to be distinct from the Manomayakosa, as a division is made

after death between the lower part of the mind, as it were, which has a

closer affinity with the fourth principle than with the sixth and its

higher part, which attaches itself to the latter, and which is, in fact,

the basis for the higher spiritual individuality of man.

 

We may also here point out to our readers that the classification

mentioned in the last column is for all practical purposes connected

with Raja Yoga, the best and simplest.  Though there are seven

principles in man, there are but three distinct Upadhis (bases), in each

of which his Atma may work independently of the rest.  These three

Upadhis can be separated by an adept without killing himself.  He cannot

separate the seven principles from each other without destroying his

constitution.

 

--T.S.

 

 

 

 

The Septenary Principle in Esotericism

 

 

Since the exposition of the Arhat esoteric doctrine was begun, many who

had not acquainted themselves with the occult basis of Hindu philosophy

have imagined that the two were in conflict. Some of the more bigoted

have openly charged the Occultists of the Theosophical Society with

propagating rank Buddhistic heresy; and have even gone to the length of

affirming that the whole Theosophic movement was but a masked Buddhistic

propaganda.  We were taunted by ignorant Brahmins and learned Europeans

that our septenary divisions of Nature and everything in it, including

man, are arbitrary and not endorsed by the oldest religious systems of

the East.  It is now proposed to throw a cursory glance at the Vedas,

the Upanishads, the Law-Books of Manu, and especially the Vedanta, and

show that they too support our position.  Even in their crude

exotericism their affirmation of the sevenfold division is apparent.

Passage after passage may be cited in proof.  And not only can the

mysterious number be found traced on every page of the oldest Aryan

Sacred Scriptures, but in the oldest books of Zoroastrianism as well;

in the rescued cylindrical tile records of old Babylonia and Chaldea, in

the "Book of the Dead" and the Ritualism of ancient Egypt, and even in

the Mosaic books--without mentioning the secret Jewish works, such as

the Kabala.

 

The limited space at command forces us to allow a few brief quotations

to stand as landmarks and not even attempt long explanations.  It is no

exaggeration to say that upon each of the few hints now given in the

cited Slokas a thick volume might be written.

 

From the well-known hymn To Time, in the Atharva-Veda (xix. 53):

 

     "Time, like a brilliant steed with seven rays,

     Full of fecundity, bears all things onward.

 

     "Time, like a seven-wheeled, seven-naved car moves on,

     His rolling wheels are all the worlds, his axle

     Is immortality...."

 

--down to Manu, "the first and the seventh man," the Vedas, the

Upanishads, and all the later systems of philosophy teem with allusions

to this number.  Who was Manu, the son of Swayambhuva? The secret

doctrine tells us that this Manu was no man, but the representation of

the first human races evolved with the help of the Dhyan-Chohans (Devas)

at the beginning of the first Round. But we are told in his Laws (Book

I. 80) that there are fourteen Manus for every Kalpa or "interval from

creation to creation" (read interval from one minor "Pralaya" to

another) and that "in the present divine age there have been as yet

seven Manus." Those who know that there are seven Rounds, of which we

have passed three, and are now in the fourth;  and who are taught that

there are seven dawns and seven twilights, or fourteen Manvantaras;

that at the beginning of every Round and at the end, and on and between

the planets, there is "an awakening to illusive life," and "an awakening

to real life," and that, moreover, there are "root-Manus," and what we

have to clumsily translate as the "seed-Manus"--the seeds for the human

races of the forthcoming Round (a mystery divulged but to those who have

passed the 3rd degree in initiation);  those who have learned all that,

will be better prepared to understand the meaning of the following.  We

are told in the Sacred Hindu Scriptures that "the first Manu produced

six other Manus (seven primary Manus in all), and these produced in

their turn each seven other Manus" (Bhrigu I. 61-63),* the production of

the latter standing in the occult treatises as 7 x 7.  Thus it becomes

clear that Manu--the last one, the progenitor of our Fourth Round

Humanity--must be the seventh, since we are on our fourth Round, and

that there is a root-Manu on globe A and a seed-Manu on globe G.  Just

as each planetary Round commences with the appearance of a "Root-Manu"

(Dhyan-Chohan) and closes with a "Seed-Manu," so a root-and a seed-Manu

appear respectively at the beginning and the termination of the human

period on any particular planet.

 

-------

* The fact that Manu himself is made to declare that he was created by

Viraj and then produced the ten Prajapatis, who again produced seven

Menus, who in their turn gave birth to seven other Manus (Manu, I.

33-36), relates to other still earlier mysteries, and is at the same

time a blind with regard to the doctrine of the Septenary chain.

---------

 

It will be easily seen from the foregoing statement that a Manu-antaric

period means, as the term implies, the time between the appearance of

two Manus or Dhyan-Chohans:  and hence a minor Manu-antara is the

duration of the seven races on any particular planet, and a major

Manu-antara is the period of one human round along the planetary chain.

Moreover, that, as it is said that each of the seven Manus creates 7 x 7

Manus, and that there are 49 root-races on the seven planets during each

Round, then every root-race has its Manu.  The present seventh Manu is

called "Vaivasvata," and stands in the exoteric texts for that Manu who

represents in India the Babylonian Xisusthrus and the Jewish Noah.  But

in the esoteric books we are told that Manu Vaivasvata, the progenitor

of our fifth race--who saved it from the flood that nearly exterminated

the fourth (Atlantean)--is not the seventh Manu, mentioned in the

nomenclature of the Root, or primitive Manus, but one of the 49

"emanated from this 'root'--Manu."

 

For clearer comprehension we here give the names of the 14 Manus in

their respective order and relation to each Round:--

 

1st      1st (Root) Manu on Planet      A.-Swayambhuva

Round.   1st (Seed) Manu on Planet      G.-Swarochi

                                           (or)Swarotisha

 

2nd      2nd (R.)     M.    on Planet   A.-Uttama

Round    2nd (S.)     M.     "    "     G.-Thamasa

 

3rd      3rd (R.)     M.     "    "     A.-Raivata

Round    3rd (S.)     M.     "    "     G.-Chackchuska

 

4th      4th (R.)     M.     "    "     A.-Vaivasvata (our progenitor)

Round    4th (S.)     M.     "    "     G.-Savarni

 

5th      5th (R.)     M.     "    "     A.-Daksha Savarni

Round    5th (S.)     M.     "    "     G.-Brahma Savarni

 

6th      6th (R.)     M.  on    Planet  A.-Dharma Savarni

Round    6th  (S.)    M.  "      "      G.-Rudra Savarni

 

7th      7th  (R.)    M.  "      "      A.-Rouchya

Round    7th  (S.)    M.  "      "      G.-Bhoutya

 

Vaivasvata thus, though seventh in the order given, is the primitive

Root-Manu of our fourth Human Wave (the reader must always remember that

Manu is not a man but collective humanity), while our Vaivasvata was but

one of the seven Minor Manus who are made to preside over the seven

races of this our planet.  Each of these has to become the witness of

one of the periodical and ever-recurring cataclysms (by fire and water

in turn) that close the cycle of every root-race.  And it is this

Vaivasvata--the Hindu ideal embodiment called respectively Xisusthrus,

Deukalion, Noah, and by other names--who is the allegorical man who

rescued our race when nearly the whole population of one hemisphere

perished by water, while the other hemisphere was awakening from its

temporary obscuration.

 

The number seven stands prominently conspicuous in even a cursory

comparison of the 11th Tablet of the Izdhubar Legends of the Chaldean

account of the Deluge and the so-called Mosaic books. In both the number

seven plays a most prominent part.  The clean beasts are taken by

sevens, the fowls by sevens also;  in seven days, it is promised Noah,

to rain upon the earth;  thus he stays "yet other seven days," and again

seven days;  while in the Chaldean. account of the Deluge, on the

seventh day the rain abated.  On the seventh day the dove is sent out;

by sevens, Xisusthrus takes "jugs of wine" for the altar, &c.  Why such

coincidence?  And yet we are told by, and bound to believe in, the

European Orientalists, when passing judgment alike upon the Babylonian

and Aryan chronology they call them "extravagant and fanciful!"

Nevertheless, while they give us no explanation of, nor have they ever

noticed, as far as we know, the strange identity in the totals of the

Semitic, Chaldean, and Aryan Hindu chronology, the students of Occult

Philosophy find the following fact extremely suggestive.  While the

period of the reign of the 10 Babylonian antediluvian kings is given as

432,000 years,* the duration of the postdiluvian Kali-yug is also given

as 432,000, while the four ages or the divine Maha-yug, yield in their

totality 4,320,000 years.  Why should they, if fanciful and

"extravagant," give the identical figures, when neither the Aryans nor

the Babylonians have surely borrowed anything from each other!  We

invite the attention of our occultists to the three figures given--4

standing for the perfect square, 3 for the triad (the seven universal

and the seven individual principles), and 2 the symbol of our

illusionary world, a figure ignored and rejected by Pythagoras.

 

--------

* See "Babylonia," by George Smith, p. 36.  Here again, as with the

Manus and 10 Prajapatis and the 10 Sephiroths in the Book of Numbers--

they dwindle down to seven!

--------

 

It is in the Upanishads and the Vedanta though, that we have to look for

the best corroborations of the occult teachings.  In the mystical

doctrine the Rahasya, or the Upanishads--"the only Veda of all

thoughtful Hindus in the present day," as Monier Williams is made to

confess, every word, as its very name implies,* has a secret meaning

underlying it.  This meaning can be fully realized only by him who has a

full knowledge of Prana, the ONE LIFE, "the nave to which are attached

the seven spokes of the Universal Wheel." (Hymn to Prana, Atharva-Veda,

XI. 4.)

 

Even European Orientalists agree that all the systems in India assign to

the human body:  (a) an exterior or gross body (sthula-sarira);  (b) an

inner or shadowy body (sukshma), or linga-sarira (the vehicle), the two

cemented with--(c), life (jiv or Karana sarira, "causal body").**  These

the occult system or esotericism divides into seven, farther adding to

these--kama, manas, buddhi and atman.  The Nyaya philosophy when

treating of Prameyas (by which the objects and subjects of Praman are to

be correctly understood) includes among the 12 the seven "root

principles" (see IXth Sutra), which are 1, soul (atman), and 2 its

superior spirit Jivatman;  3, body (sarira);  4, senses (indriya);  5,

activity or will (pravritti);  6, mind (manas);  7, Intellection

(Buddhi).  The seven Padarthas (inquiries or predicates of existing

things) of Kanada in the Vaiseshikas, refer in the occult doctrine to

the seven qualities or attributes of the seven principles.  Thus:  1,

substance (dravya) refers to body or sthula-sarira;  2, quality or

property (guna) to the life principle, jiv;  3, action or act (karman)

to the Linga, sarira; 4, Community or commingling of properties

(Samanya) to Kamarupa; 5, personality or conscious individuality

(Visesha) to Manas;  6, co-inherence or perpetual intimate relation

(Samuvuya) to Buddhi, the inseparable vehicle of Atman;  7,

non-existence or non-being in the sense of, and as separate from,

objectivity or substance (abhava)--to the highest monad or Atman.

 

-------

* Upa-ni-shad means, according to Brahminical authority, "to conquer

ignorance by revealing the secret spiritual knowledge." According to

Monier Williams, the title is derived from the root sad with the

prepositions upa and ni, and implies "something mystical that underlies

or is beneath the surface."

 

** This Karana-sarira is often mistaken by the uninitiated for

Linga-sarira, and since it is described as the inner rudimentary or

latent embryo of the body, confounded with it.  But the Occultists

regard it as the life (body) or Jiv, which disappears at death;  is

withdrawn--leaving the 1st and 3rd principles to disintegrate and

return to their elements.

----------

 

Thus, whether we view the ONE as the Vedic Purusha or Brahman (neuter)

the "all-expanding essence;"  or as the universal spirit, the "light of

lights" (jyotisham jyotih) the TOTAL independent of all relation, of the

Upanishads;  or as the Paramatman of the Vedanta;  or again as Kanada's

Adrishta, "the unseen Force," or divine atom;  or as Prakriti, the

"eternally existing essence," of Kapila--we find in all these impersonal

universal Principles the latent capability of evolving out of themselves

"six rays" (the evolver being the seventh).  The third aphorism of the

Sankhya-Karika, which says of Prakriti that it is the "root and

substance of all things," and no production, but itself a producer of

"seven things, which produced by it, become also producers," has a

purely occult meaning.

 

What are the "producers" evoluted from this universal root-principle,

Mula-prakriti or undifferentiated primeval cosmic matter, which evolves

out of itself consciousness and mind, and is generally called "Prakriti"

and amulam mulam, "the rootless root," and Aryakta, the "unevolved

evolver," &c.?  This primordial tattwa or "eternally existing 'that,'"

the unknown essence, is said to produce as a first producer, 1, Buddhi--

"intellect"--whether we apply the latter to the 6th macrocosmic or

microcosmic principle.  This first produced produces in its turn (or is

the source of) Ahankara, "self-consciousness" and manas "mind."  The

reader will please always remember that the Mahat or great source of

these two internal faculties, "Buddhi" per se, can have neither

self-consciousness nor mind;  viz., the 6th principle in man can preserve

an essence of personal self-consciousness or "personal individuality" only

by absorbing within itself its own waters, which have run through that

finite faculty;  for Ahankara, that is the perception of "I," or the

sense of one's personal individuality, justly represented by the term

"Ego-ism," belongs to the second, or rather the third, production out of

the seven, viz., to the 5th principle, or Manas.  It is the latter which

draws "as the web issues from the spider" along the thread of Prakriti,

the "root principle," the four following subtle elementary principles or

particles--Tanmatras, out of which "third class," the Mahabhutas or the

gross elementary principles, or rather sarira and rupas, are evolved--

the kama, linga, Jiva and sthula-sarira.  The three gunas of

"Prakriti"--the Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas (purity, passionate activity,

and ignorance or darkness)--spun into a triple-stranded cord or "rope,"

pass through the seven, or rather six, human principles.

 

It depends on the 5th--Manas or Ahankara, the "I"--to thin the guna,

"rope," into one thread--the sattwa;  and thus by becoming one with the

"unevolved evolver," win immortality or eternal conscious existence.

Otherwise it will be again resolved into its Mahabhautic essence;  so

long as the triple-stranded rope is left unstranded, the spirit (the

divine monad) is bound by the presence of the gunas in the principles

"like an animal" (purusha pasu).  The spirit, atman or jivatman (the 7th

and 6th principles), whether of the macro-or microcosm, though bound by

these gunas during the objective manifestation of universe or man, is

yet nirguna--i.e., entirely free from them.  Out of the three producers

or evolvers, Prakriti, Buddhi and Ahankara, it is but the latter that

can be caught (when man is concerned) and destroyed when personal.  The

"divine monad" is aguna (devoid of qualities), while Prakriti, once that

from passive Mula-prakriti it has become avyakta (an active evolver) is

gunavat--endowed with qualities.  With the latter, Purusha or Atman can

have nought to do (of course being unable to perceive it in its

gunuvatic state);  with the former--or Mula-prakriti or undifferentiated

cosmic essence--it has, since it is one with it and identical.

 

The Atma Bodha, or "knowledge of soul," a tract written by the great

Sankaracharya, speaks distinctly of the seven principles in man (see

14th verse).  They are called therein the five sheaths (panchakosa) in

which is enclosed the divine monad--the Atman, and Buddhi, the 7th and

6th principles, or the individuated soul when made distinct (through

avidya, maya and the gunas) from the supreme soul--Parabrahm.  The 1st

sheath, called Ananda-maya--the "illusion of supreme bliss"--is the

manas or fifth principle of the occultists, when united with Buddhi;

the 2nd sheath is Vjnana-maya-kosa, the case or "envelope of

self-delusion," the manas when self-deluded into the belief of the

personal "I," or ego, with its vehicle.  The 3rd, the Mano-maya sheath,

composed of "illusionary mind" associated with the organs of action and

will, is the Kamarupa and Linga-sarira combined, producing an illusive

"I" or Mayavi-rupa.  The 4th sheath is called Prana-maya, "illusionary

life," our second life principle or jiv, wherein resides life, the

"breathing" sheath.  The 5th kosa is called Anna-maya, or the sheath

supported by food--our gross material body.  All these sheaths produce

other smaller sheaths, or six attributes or qualities each, the seventh

being always the root sheath;  and the Atman or spirit passing through

all these subtle ethereal bodies like a thread, is called the

"thread-soul" or sutratman.

 

We may conclude with the above demonstration.  Verily the Esoteric

doctrine may well be called in its turn the "thread-doctrine," since,

like Sutratman or Pranatman, it passes through and strings together all

the ancient philosophical religious systems, and, what is more,

reconciles and explains them.  For though seeming so unlike externally,

they have but one foundation, and of that the extent, depth, breadth and

nature are known to those who have become, like the "Wise Men of the

East," adepts in Occult Science.

 

--H.P. Blavatsky

 

 

 

 

Personal and Impersonal God

 

 

At the outset I shall request my readers (such of them at least as are

not acquainted with the Cosmological theories of the Idealistic thinkers

of Europe) to examine John Stuart Mill's Cosmological speculations as

contained in his examination of Sir William Hamilton's philosophy,

before attempting to understand the Adwaita doctrine;  and I beg to

inform them beforehand that in explaining the main principles of the

said doctrine, I am going to use, as far as it is convenient to do so,

the phraseology adopted by English psychologists of the Idealistic

school of thought.  In dealing with the phenomena of our present plane

of existence John Stuart Mill ultimately came to the conclusion that

matter, or the so-called external phenomena, are but the creation of our

mind;  they are the mere appearances of a particular phase of our

subjective self, and of our thoughts, volitions, sensations and emotions

which in their totality constitute the basis of that Ego.  Matter then

is the permanent possibility of sensations, and the so-called Laws of

matter are, properly speaking, the Laws which govern the succession and

coexistence of our states of consciousness.  Mill further holds that

properly speaking there is no noumenal Ego.  The very idea of a mind

existing separately as an entity, distinct from the states of

consciousness which are supposed to inhere in it, is in his opinion

illusory, as the idea of an external object, which is supposed to be

perceived by our senses.

 

Thus the ideas of mind and matter, of subject and object, of the Ego and

external world, are really evolved from the aggregation of our mental

states which are the only realities so far as we are concerned.

 

The chain of our mental states or states of consciousness is "a

double-headed monster," according to Professor Bain, which has two

distinct aspects, one objective and the other subjective. Mr. Mill has

paused here, confessing that psychological analysis did not go any

further; the mysterious link which connects together the train of our

states of consciousness and gives rise to our Ahankaram in this

condition of existence, still remains an incomprehensible mystery to

Western psychologists, though its existence is but dimly perceived in

the subjective phenomena of memory and expectation.

 

On the other hand, the great physicists of Europe are gradually coming

to the conclusion* that mind is the product of matter, or that it is one

of the attributes of matter in some of its conditions.  It would appear,

therefore, from the speculations of Western psychologists that matter is

evolved from mind and that mind is evolved from matter.  These two

propositions are apparently irreconcilable.

 

--------

* See Tyndall's Belfast Address.--S.R.

--------

 

Mill and Tyndall have admitted that Western science is yet unable to go

deeper into the question.  Nor is it likely to solve the mystery

hereafter, unless it calls Eastern occult science to its aid and takes a

more comprehensive view of the capabilities of the real subjective self

of man and the various aspects of the great objective universe.  The

great Adwaitee philosophers of ancient Aryavarta have examined the

relationship between subject and object in every condition of existence

in this solar system in which this differentiation is presented.  Just

as a human being is composed of seven principles, differentiated matter

in the solar system exists in seven different conditions.  These

different states of matter do not all come within the range of our

present objective consciousness.  But they can be objectively perceived

by the spiritual Ego in man.  To the liberated spiritual monad of man,

or to the Dhyan Chohans, every thing that is material in every condition

of matter is an object of perception.  Further, Pragna or the capacity

of perception exists in seven different aspects corresponding to the

seven conditions of matter.  Strictly speaking, there are but six states

of matter, the so-called seventh state being the aspect of cosmic matter

in its original undifferentiated condition.  Similarly there are six

states of differentiated Pragna, the seventh state being a condition of

perfect unconsciousness.  By differentiated Pragna, I mean the condition

in which Pragna is split up into various states of consciousness.  Thus

we have six states of consciousness, either objective or subjective for

the time being, as the case may be, and a perfect state of

unconsciousness, which is the beginning and the end of all conceivable

states of consciousness, corresponding to the states of differentiated

matter and its original undifferentiated basis which is the beginning

and the end of all cosmic evolutions.  It will be easily seen that the

existence of consciousness is necessary for the differentiation between

subject and object.  Hence these two phases are presented in six

different conditions, and in the last state there being no consciousness

as above stated, the differentiation in question ceases to exist.  The

number of these various conditions is different in different systems of

philosophy.  But whatever may be the number of divisions, they all lie

between perfect unconsciousness at one end of the line and our present

state of consciousness or Bahipragna at the other end.  To understand

the real nature of these different states of consciousness, I shall

request my readers to compare the consciousness of the ordinary man with

the consciousness of the astral man, and again compare the latter with

the consciousness of the spiritual Ego in man.  In these three

conditions the objective universe is not the same.  But the difference

between the Ego and the non-Ego is common to all these conditions.

Consequently, admitting the correctness of Mill's reasoning as regards

the subject and object of our present plane of consciousness, the great

Adwaitee thinkers of India have extended the same reasoning to other

states of consciousness, and came to the conclusion that the various

conditions of the Ego and the non-Ego were but the appearances of one

and the same entity--the ultimate state of unconsciousness.  This entity

is neither matter nor spirit;  it is neither Ego nor non-Ego;  and it is

neither object nor subject.  In the language of Hindu philosophers it is

the original and eternal combination of Purusha and Prakriti.  As the

Adwaitees hold that an external object is merely the product of our

mental states, Prakriti is nothing more than illusion, and Purush is the

only reality;  it is the one existence which remains eternal in this

universe of Ideas.  This entity then is the Parabrahmam of the

Adwaitees.  Even if there were to be a personal God with anything like a

material Upadhi (physical basis of whatever form), from the standpoint

of an Adwaitee there will be as much reason to doubt his noumenal

existence as there would be in the case of any other object.  In their

opinion, a conscious God cannot be the origin of the universe, as his

Ego would be the effect of a previous cause, if the word conscious

conveys but its ordinary meaning.  They cannot admit that the grand

total of all the states of consciousness in the universe is their deity,

as these states are constantly changing and as cosmic idealism ceases

during Pralaya.  There is only one permanent condition in the universe

which is the state of perfect unconsciousness, bare Chidakasam (field of

consciousness) in fact.

 

When my readers once realize the fact that this grand universe is in

reality but a huge aggregation of various states of consciousness, they

will not be surprised to find that the ultimate state of unconsciousness

is considered as Parabrahmam by the Adwaitees.

 

The idea of a God, Deity, Iswar, or an impersonal God (if consciousness

is one of his attributes) involves the idea of Ego or non-Ego in some

shape or other, and as every conceivable Ego or non-Ego is evolved from

this primitive element (I use this word for want of a better one) the

existence of an extra-cosmic god possessing such attributes prior to

this condition is absolutely inconceivable.  Though I have been speaking

of this element as the condition of unconsciousness, it is, properly

speaking, the Chidakasam or Chinmatra of the Hindu philosophers which

contains within itself the potentiality of every condition of "Pragna,"

and which results as consciousness on the one hand and the objective

universe on the other, by the operation of its latent Chichakti (the

power which generates thought).

 

Before proceeding to discuss the nature of Parabrahmam.  It is to be

stated that in the opinion of Adwaitees, the Upanishads and the

Brahmasutras fully support their views on the subject. It is distinctly

affirmed in the Upanishads that Parabrahmam, which is but the bare

potentiality of Pragna,* is not an aspect of Pragna or Ego in any shape,

and that it has neither life nor consciousness.  The reader will be able

to ascertain that such is really the case on examining the Mundaka and

Mandukya Upanishads.  The language used here and there in the Upanishads

is apt to mislead one into the belief that such language points to the

existence of a conscious Iswar.  But the necessity for such language

will perhaps be rendered clear from the following considerations.

 

--------

* The power or the capacity that gives rise to perception.

--------

 

From a close examination of Mill's cosmological theory the difficulty

will be clearly seen referred to above, of satisfactorily accounting for

the generation of conscious states in any human being from the

standpoint of the said theory.  It is generally stated that sensations

arise in us from the action of the external objects around us:  they are

the effects of impressions made on our senses by the objective world in

which we exist.  This is simple enough to an ordinary mind, however

difficult it may be to account for the transformation of a cerebral

nerve-current into a state of consciousness.

 

But from the standpoint of Mill's theory we have no proof of the

existence of any external object;  even the objective existence of our

own senses is not a matter of certainty to us.  How, then, are we to

account for and explain the origin of our mental states, if they are the

only entities existing in this world?  No explanation is really given by

saying that one mental state gives rise to another mental state, to a

certain extent at all events, under the operation of the so-called

psychological "Laws of Association."  Western psychology honestly admits

that its analysis has not gone any further.  It may be inferred,

however, from the said theory that there would be no reason for saying

that a material Upadhi (basis) is necessary for the existence of mind or

states of consciousness.

 

As is already indicated, the Aryan psychologists have traced this

current of mental states to its source--the eternal Chinmatra existing

everywhere.  When the time for evolution comes this germ of Pragna

unfolds itself and results ultimately as Cosmic ideation.  Cosmic ideas

are the conceptions of all the conditions of existence in the Cosmos

existing in what may be called the universal mind (the demiurgic mind of

the Western Kabalists).

 

This Chinmatra exists as it were at every geometrical point of the

infinite Chidakasam.  This principle then has two general aspects.

Considered as something objective it is the eternal Asath--Mulaprakriti

or Undifferentiated Cosmic matter.  From a subjective point of view it

may be looked upon in two ways.  It is Chidakasam when considered as the

field of Cosmic ideation; and it is Chinmatra when considered as the

germ of Cosmic ideation.  These three aspects constitute the highest

Trinity of the Aryan Adwaitee philosophers.  It will be readily seen

that the last-mentioned aspect of the principle in question is far more

important to us than the other two aspects;  for, when looked upon in

this aspect the principle under consideration seems to embody within

itself the great Law of Cosmic Evolution. And therefore the Adwaitee

philosophers have chiefly considered it in this light, and explained

their cosmogony from a subjective point of view.  In doing so, however,

they cannot avoid the necessity of speaking of a universal mind (and

this is Brahma, the Creator) and its ideation.  But it ought not to be

inferred therefrom that this universal mind necessarily belongs to an

Omnipresent living conscious Creator, simply because in ordinary

parlance a mind is always spoken of in connection with a particular

living being.  It cannot be contended that a material Uphadi is

indispensable for the existence of mind or mental states when the

objective universe itself is, so far as we are concerned, the result of

our states of consciousness. Expressions implying the existence of a

conscious Iswar which are to be found here and there in the Upanishads

should not therefore be literally construed.

 

It now remains to be seen how Adwaitees account for the origin of mental

states in a particular individual.  Apparently the mind of a particular

human being is not the universal mind.  Nevertheless Cosmic ideation is

the real source of the states of consciousness in every individual.

Cosmic ideation exists everywhere;  but when placed under restrictions

by a material Upadhi it results as the consciousness of the individual

inhering in such Upadhi. Strictly speaking, an Adwaitee will not admit

the objective existence of this material Upadhi.  From his standpoint it

is Maya or illusion which exists as a necessary condition of Pragna. But

to avoid confusion, I shall use the ordinary language;  and to enable my

readers to grasp my meaning clearly the following simile may be adopted.

Suppose a bright light is placed in the centre with a curtain around it.

The nature of the light that penetrates through the curtain and becomes

visible to a person standing outside depends upon the nature of the

curtain.  If several such curtains are thus successively placed around

the light, it will have to penetrate through all of them;  and a person

standing outside will only perceive as much light as is not intercepted

by all the curtains.  The central light becomes dimmer and dimmer as

curtain after curtain is placed before the observer;  and as curtain

after curtain is removed the light becomes brighter and brighter until

it reaches its natural brilliancy.  Similarly, universal mind or Cosmic

ideation becomes more and more limited and modified by the various

Upadhis of which a human being is composed;  and when the action or

influence of these various Upadhis is successively controlled, the mind

of the individual human being is placed en rapport with the universal

mind and his ideation is lost in Cosmic ideation.

 

As I have already said, these Upadhis are strictly speaking the

conditions of the gradual development or evolution of Bahipragna--or

consciousness in the present plane of our existence--from the original

and eternal Chinmatra, which is the seventh principle in man, and the

Parabrahmam of the Adwaitees.

 

This then is the purport of the Adwaitee philosophy on the subject under

consideration, and it is, in my humble opinion, in harmony with the

Arhat doctrine relating to the same subject. The latter doctrine

postulates the existence of Cosmic matter in an undifferentiated

condition throughout the infinite expanse of space.  Space and time are

but its aspects, and Purush, the seventh principle of the universe, has

its latent life in this ocean of Cosmic matter.  The doctrine in

question explains Cosmogony from an objective point of view.

 

When the period of activity arrives, portions of the whole differentiate

according to the latent law.  When this differentiation has commenced,

the concealed wisdom or latent Chichakti acts in the universal mind, and

Cosmic energy or Fohat forms the manifested universe in accordance with

the conceptions generated in the universal mind out of the

differentiated principles of Cosmic matter.  This manifested universe

constitutes a solar system. When the period of Pralaya comes, the

process of differentiation stops and Cosmic ideation ceases to exist;

and at the time of Brahmapralaya or Mahapralaya the particles of matter

lose all differentiation, and the matter that exists in the solar system

returns to its original undifferentiated condition. The latent design

exists in the one unborn eternal atom, the centre which exists

everywhere and nowhere;  and this is the one life that exists

everywhere.  Now, it will be easily seen that the undifferentiated

Cosmic matter, Purush, and the ONE LIFE of the Arhat philosophers, are

the Mulaprakriti, Chidakasam, and Chinmatra of the Adwaitee

philosophers.  As regards Cosmogony, the Arhat standpoint is objective,

and the Adwaitee standpoint is subjective.  The Arhat Cosmogony accounts

for the evolution of the manifested solar system from undifferentiated

Cosmic matter, and Adwaitee Cosmogony accounts for the evolution of

Bahipragna from the original Chinmatra.  As the different conditions of

differentiated C osmic matter are but the different aspects of the

various conditions of Pragna, the Adwaitee Cosmogony is but the

complement of the Arhat Cosmogony.  The eternal principle is precisely

the same in both the systems, and they agree in denying the existence of

an extra-Cosmic God.

 

The Arhats call themselves Atheists, and they are justified in doing so

if theism inculcates the existence of a conscious God governing the

universe by his will-power.  Under such circumstance the Adwaitee will

come under the same denomination. Atheism and theism are words of

doubtful import, and until their meaning is definitely ascertained it

would be better not to use them in connection with any system of

philosophy.

 

--T. Subba Row

 

 

 

 

Prakriti and Parusha

 

 

Prakriti may be looked upon either as Maya when considered as the Upadhi

of Parabrahmam or as Avidya when considered as the Upadhi of Jivatma

(7th principle in man).*  Avidya is ignorance or illusion arising from

Maya. The term Maya, though sometimes used as a synonym for Avidya, is,

properly speaking, applicable to Prakriti only.  There is no difference

between Prakriti, Maya and Sakti;  and the ancient Hindu philosophers

made no distinction whatsoever between Matter and Force.  In support of

these assertions I may refer the learned hermit to "Swetaswatara

Upanishad" and its commentary by Sankaracharya.  In case we adopt the

fourfold division of the Adwaitee philosophers, it will be clearly seen

that Jagrata,* Swapna* and Sushupti Avasthas* are the results of Avidya,

and that Vyswanara,* Hiranyagarbha* and Sutratma* are the manifestations

of Parabrahmam in Maya or Prakriti.  In drawing a distinction between

Avidya and Prakriti, I am merely following the authority of all the

great Adwaitee philosophers of Aryavarta.  It will be sufficient for me

to refer to the first chapter of the celebrated Vidantic treatise, the

Panchadasi.

 

----------

* Upadhi--vehicle.

 

Jagrata--waking state, or a condition of external perception.

 

Swapna--dreamy state, or a condition of clairvoyance in the astral

plane.

 

 

Sushupti--a state of extasis;  and Avastas--states or conditions of

Pragna.

 

Vyswanara--the magnetic fire that pervades the manifested solar system--

the root objective aspect of the ONE LIFE.

 

Hiranyagarbha--the one life as manifested in the plane of astral Light.

 

Sutratma--the Eternal germ of the manifested universe existing in the

field of Mulaprakriti.

---------

 

In truth, Prakriti and Purusha are but the two aspects of the same ONE

REALITY.  As our great Sankaracharya truly observes at the close of his

commentary on the 23rd Sutra of the first chapter of the Brahma sutras,

"Parabrahmam is Karta (Purush), as there is no other Adhishtatha,* and

Parabrahmam is Prakriti, there being no other Upadanam."  This sentence

clearly indicates the relation between "the One Life" and "the One

Element" of the Arha-philosophers.  This will elucidate the meaning of

the statement so often quoted by Adwaitees--"Sarvam Khalvitham Brahma"

** and also of what is meant by saying that Brahmam is the Upadanakarnam

(material cause) of the Universe.

 

--T Subba Row

 

---------

* Adishtatha--that which inheres in another principle--the active agent

working in Prakriti.

 

** Everything in the universe is Brahma.

---------

 

 

 

 

Morality and Pantheism

 

 

Questions have been raised in several quarters as to the inefficiency of

Pantheism (which term is intended to include Esoteric Buddhism, Adwaitee

Vedantism, and other similar religious systems) to supply a sound basis

of morality.

 

The philosophical assimilation of meum and teum, it is urged, must of

necessity be followed by their practical confusion, resulting in the

sanction of cruelty, robbery, &c.  This line of argument points,

however, most unmistakably to the co-existence of the objection with an

all but utter ignorance of the systems objected to, in the critic's

mind, as we shall show by-and-by. The ultimate sanction of morality, as

is well known, is derived from a desire for the attainment of happiness

and escape from misery.  But schools differ in their estimate of

happiness. Exoteric religions base their morality on the hope of reward

and fear of punishment at the hands of an Omnipotent Ruler of the

Universe by following the rules he has at his pleasure laid down for the

obedience of his helpless subjects;  in some cases, however, religions

of later growth have made morality to depend on the sentiment of

gratitude to that Ruler for benefits received.  The worthlessness, not

to speak of the mischievousness, of such systems of morality is almost

self-evident.  As a type of morality founded on hope and fear, we shall

take an instance from the Christian Bible:  "He that giveth to the poor

lendeth to the Lord."  The duty of supporting the poor is here made to

depend upon prudential motives of laying by for a time when the "giver

to the poor" will be incapable of taking care of himself.  But the

Mahabharata says that "He that desireth a return for his good deeds

loseth all merit;  he is like a merchant bartering his goods."  The true

springs of morality lose their elasticity under the pressure of such

criminal selfishness;  all pure and unselfish natures will fly away from

it in disgust.

 

To avoid such consequences attempts have been made by some recent

reformers of religion to establish morality upon the sentiment of

gratitude to the Lord.  But it requires no deep consideration to find

that, in their endeavours to shift the basis of morality, these

reformers have rendered morality entirely baseless.  A man has to do

what is represented to be a thing "dear unto the Lord" out of gratitude

for the many blessings He has heaped upon him. But as a matter of fact

he finds that the Lord has heaped upon him curses as well as blessings.

A helpless orphan is expected to be grateful to him for having removed

the props of his life, his parents, because he is told in consolation

that such a calamity is but apparently an evil, but in reality the

All-Merciful has underneath it hidden the greatest possible good. With

equal reason might a preacher of the Avenging Ahriman exhort men to

believe that under the apparent blessings of the "Merciful" Father there

lurks the serpent of evil.

 

The modern Utilitarians, though the range of their vision is so narrow,

have sterner logic in their teachings.  That which tends to a man's

happiness is good, and must be followed, and the contrary shunned as

evil.  So far so good.  But the practical application of the doctrine is

fraught with mischief.  Cribbed, cabined, and confined, by rank

Materialism, within the short space between birth and death, the

Utilitarians' scheme of happiness is merely a deformed torso, which

cannot certainly be considered as the fair goddess of our devotion.

 

The only scientific basis of morality is to be sought for in the

soul-consoling doctrines of Lord Buddha or Sri Sankaracharya. The

starting-point of the "pantheistic" (we use the word for want of a better

one) system of morality is a clear perception of the unity of the one

energy operating in the manifested Cosmos, the grand result which it is

incessantly striving to produce, and the affinity of the immortal human

spirit and its latent powers with that energy, and its capacity to

cooperate with the one life in achieving its mighty object.

 

Now knowledge or jnanam is divided into two classes by Adwaitee

philosophers--Paroksha and Aparoksha.  The former kind of knowledge

consists in intellectual assent to a stated proposition, the latter in

the actual realization of it.  The object which a Buddhist or Adwaitee

Yogi sets before himself is the realization of the oneness of existence,

and the practice of morality is the most powerful means to that end, as

we proceed to show.  The principal obstacle to the realization of this

oneness is the inborn habit of man of always placing himself at the

centre of the Universe.  Whatever a man might act, think, or feel, the

irrepressible personality is sure to be the central figure.  This, as

will appear on reflection, is that which prevents every individual from

filling his proper sphere in existence, where he only is exactly in

place and no other individual is.  The realization of this harmony is

the practical or objective aspect of the GRAND PROBLEM.  And the

practice of morality is the effort to find out this sphere;  morality,

indeed, is the Ariadne's clue in the Cretan labyrinth in which man is

placed.  From the study of the sacred philosophy preached by Lord Buddha

or Sri Sankara, paroksha knowledge (or shall we say belief?), in the

unity of existence is derived, but without the practice of morality that

knowledge cannot be converted into the highest kind of knowledge, or

aproksha jnanam, and thus lead to the attainment of mukti.  It availeth

naught to intellectually grasp the notion of your being everything and

Brahma, if it is not realized in practical acts of life.  To confuse

meum and teum in the vulgar sense is but to destroy the harmony of

existence by a false assertion of "I," and is as foolish as the anxiety

to nourish the legs at the expense of the arms.  You cannot be one with

all, unless all your acts, thoughts, and feelings synchronize with the

onward march of Nature.  What is meant by the Brahmajnani being beyond

the reach of Karma, can be fully realized only by a man who has found

out his exact position in harmony with the One Life in Nature;  that man

sees how a Brahmajnani can act only in unison with Nature, and never in

discord with it:  to use the phraseology of ancient writers on

Occultism, a Brahmajnani is a real "co-worker with Nature."  Not only

European Sanskritists, but also exoteric Yogis, fall into the grievous

mistake of supposing that, in the opinion of our sacred writers, a human

being can escape the operation of the law of Karma by adopting a

condition of masterly inactivity, entirely losing sight of the fact that

even a rigid abstinence from physical acts does not produce inactivity

on the higher astral and spiritual planes.  Sri Sankara has very

conclusively proved, in his commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita, that such

a supposition is nothing short of a delusion.  The great teacher shows

there that forcibly repressing the physical body from working does not

free one from vasana or vritti--the inherent inclination of the mind to

work.  There is a tendency, in every department of Nature, for an act to

repeat itself;  the Karma acquired in the last preceding birth is always

trying to forge fresh links in the chain, and thereby lead to continued

material existence;--and this tendency can only be counteracted by

unselfishly performing all the duties appertaining to the sphere in

which a person is born;  such a course alone can produce chitta suddhi,

(purification of the mind), without which the capacity of perceiving

spiritual truths can never be acquired.

 

A few words must here be said about the physical inactivity of the Yogi

or the Mahatma.  Inactivity of the physical body (sthula sarira) does

not indicate a condition of inactivity either on the astral or the

spiritual plane of action.  The human spirit is in its highest state of

activity in samadhi, (highest trance) and not, as is generally supposed,

in a dormant, quiescent condition. And, moreover, it will be easily

seen, by any one who examines the nature of occult dynamics, that a

given amount of energy expended on the spiritual or astral plane is

productive of far greater results than the same amount expended on the

physical objective plane of existence.  When an Adept has placed himself

en rapport with the universal mind he becomes a real power in Nature.

Even on the objective plane of existence the difference between brain

and muscular energy, in their capacity of producing widespread and

far-reaching results, can he very easily perceived.  The amount of

physical energy expended by the discoverer of the steam-engine might not

have been more than that expended by a hardworking day-labourer.  But

the practical results of the labourer's work can never be compared with

the results achieved by the discovery of the steam-engine. Similarly,

the ultimate effects of spiritual energy are infinitely greater than

those of intellectual energy.

 

From the above considerations it is abundantly clear that the initiatory

training of a true Vedantin Raj Yogi must be the nourishing of a

sleepless and ardent desire of doing all in his power for the good of

mankind on the ordinary physical plane, his activity being transferred,

however, to the higher astral and spiritual planes as his development

proceeds.  In course of time, as the Truth becomes realized, the

situation is rendered quite clear to the Yogi, and he is placed beyond

the criticism of any ordinary man.  The Mahanirvan Tantra says:--

 

     Charanti trigunatite ko vidhir ko ishedhava.

 

"For one, walking beyond the three gunas--Satva (feeling of

gratification), Rajas (passional activity) and Tamas (inertness)--what

injunction or what restriction is there?"--in the consideration of men,

walled in on all sides by the objective plane of existence.  This does

not mean that a Mahatma can or will ever neglect the laws of morality,

but that he, having unified his individual nature with Great Nature

herself, is constitutionally incapable of violating any one of the laws

of nature, and no man can constitute himself a judge of the conduct of

the Great one without knowing the laws of all the planes of Nature's

activity.  (As honest men are  honest without the least consideration of

the) criminal law, so a Mahatma is moral without reference to the laws

of morality.

 

These are, however, sublime topics:  we shall before conclusion notice

some other considerations which lead the ordinary "pantheist" to the

true foundation of morality.  Happiness has been defined by John Stuart

Mill as the state of absence of opposition.  Manu gives the definition

in more forcible terms:

 

     Sarvam paravasam duhkham

     Sarva matmavasam sukham

     Idam jnayo samasena

     Lakshanam sukhaduhkhayo.

 

"Every kind of subjugation to another is pain, and subjugation to one's

self is happiness:  in brief, this is to be known as the characteristic

marks of the two."  Now, it is universally admitted that the whole

system of Nature is moving in a particular direction, and this

direction, we are taught, is determined by the composition of two

forces--namely, the one acting from that pole of existence ordinarily

called "matter" towards the other pole called "spirit," and the other in

the opposite direction.  The very fact that Nature is moving shows that

these two forces are not equal in magnitude.  The plane on which the

activity of the first force predominates is called in occult treatises

the "ascending arc," and the corresponding plane of the activity of the

other force is styled the "descending arc."  A little reflection will

show that the work of evolution begins on the descending arc and works

its way upwards through the ascending arc.  From this it follows that

the force directed towards spirit is the one which must, though not

without hard struggle, ultimately prevail.  This is the great directing

energy of Nature, and, although disturbed by the operation of the

antagonistic force, it is this that gives the law to her;  the other is

merely its negative aspect, for convenience regarded as a separate

agent.  If an individual attempts to move in a direction other than that

in which Nature is moving, that individual is sure to be crushed, sooner

or later, by the enormous pressure of the opposing force.  We need not

say that such a result would be the very reverse of pleasurable.  The

only way, therefore, in which happiness might be attained is by merging

one's nature in great Mother Nature, and following the direction in

which she herself is moving:  this again can only be accomplished by

assimilating men's individual conduct with the triumphant force of

Nature, the other force being always overcome with terrific

catastrophes.  The effort to assimilate the individual with the

universal law is popularly known as the practice of morality.  Obedience

to this universal law, after ascertaining it, is true religion, which

has been defined by Lord Buddha "as the realization of the True."

 

An example will serve to illustrate the position.  Can a practical

pantheist, or, in other words, an occultist, utter a falsehood?  Now, it

will be readily admitted that life manifests itself by the power of

acquiring sensation, temporary dormancy of that power being suspended

animation.  If a man receives a particular series of sensations and

pretends they are other than they really are, the result is that he

exercises his will-power in opposition to a law of Nature on which, as

we have shown, life depends, and thereby becomes suicide on a minor

scale.  Space prevents further discussion, but all the ten deadly sins

mentioned by Manu and Buddha can be satisfactorily dealt with in the

light sought to be focused here.

 

--Mohini M. Chatterji

 

 

 

 

Occult Study

 

 

The practical bearing of occult teaching on ordinary life is very

variously interpreted by different students of the subject.  For many

Western readers of recent books on the esoteric doctrine, it even seems

doubtful whether the teaching has any bearing on practical life at all.

The proposal which it is supposed sometimes to convey, that all earnest

inquirers should put themselves under the severe ascetic regimen

followed by its regular Oriental disciples, is felt to embody a strain

on the habits of modern civilization which only a few enthusiasts will

be prepared to encounter.  The mere intellectual charm of an intricate

philosophy may indeed be enough to recommend the study to some minds,

but a scheme of teaching that offers itself as a substitute for

religious faith of the usual kind will be expected to yield some

tangible results in regard to the future spiritual well-being of those

who adopt it.  Has occult philosophy nothing to give except to those who

are in a position and willing to make a sacrifice in its behalf of all

other objects in life?  In that case it would indeed be useless to bring

it out into the world. In reality the esoteric doctrine affords an

almost infinite variety of opportunities for spiritual development, and

no greater mistake could be made in connection with the present movement

than to suppose the teaching of the Adepts merely addressed to persons

capable of heroic self-devotion.  Assuredly it does not discourage

efforts in the direction of the highest achievement of occult progress,

if any Western occultists may feel disposed to make them;  but it is

important for us all to keep clearly in view the lower range of

possibilities connected with humbler aspirations.

 

I believe it to be absolutely true that even the slightest attention

seriously paid to the instructions now emanating from the Indian Adepts

will generate results within the spiritual principles of those who

render it--causes capable of producing appreciable consequences in a

future state of existence.  Any one who has sufficiently examined the

doctrine of Devachan will readily follow the idea, for the nature of the

spiritual existence which in the ordinary course of things must succeed

each physical life, provides for the very considerable expansion of any

aspirations towards real knowledge that may be set going on earth.  I

will recur to this point directly, when I have made clearer the general

drift of the argument I am trying to unfold. At the one end of the scale

of possibilities connected with occult study lies the supreme

development of Adeptship;  an achievement which means that the person

reaching it has so violently stimulated his spiritual growth within a

short period, as to have anticipated processes on which Nature, in her

own deliberate way, would have spent a great procession of ages.  At the

other end of the scale lies the small result to which I have just

alluded--a result which may rather be said to establish a tendency in

the direction of spiritual achievement than to embody such achievement.

But between these two widely different results there is no hard and fast

line that can be drawn at any place to make a distinct separation in the

character of the consequences ensuing from devotion to occult pursuits.

As the darkness of blackest night gives way by imperceptible degrees to

the illumination of the brightest sunrise, so the spiritual consequences

of emerging from the apathy either of pure materialism or of dull

acquiescence in unreasonable dogmas, brighten by imperceptible degrees

from the faintest traces of Devachanic improvement into the full blaze

of the highest perfection human nature can attain.  Without assuming

that the course of Nature which prescribes for each human Ego successive

physical lives and successive periods of spiritual refreshment--without

supposing that this course is altered by such moderate devotion to

occult study as is compatible with the ordinary conditions of European

life, it will nevertheless be seen how vast the consequences may

ultimately be of impressing on that career of evolution a distinct

tendency in the direction of supreme enlightenment, of that result which

is described as the union of the individual soul with universal spirit.

 

The explanations of the esoteric doctrine which have been publicly

given, have shown that humanity in the mass has now attained a stage in

the great evolutionary cycle from which it has the opportunity of

growing upward towards final perfection. In the mass it is, of course,

unlikely that it will travel that road:  final perfection is not a gift

to be bestowed upon all, but to be worked for by those who desire it.

It may be put within the theoretical reach of all;  there may be no

human creature living at this moment, of whom it can be said that the

highest possibilities of Nature are impossible of attainment, but it

does not follow by any means that every individual will attain the

highest possibilities.  Regarding each individual as one of the seeds of

a great flower which throws out thousands of seeds, it is manifest that

only a few, relatively to the great number, will become fully developed

flowers in their turn.  No unjust neglect awaits the majority.  For each

and every one the consequences of the remote future will be precisely

proportioned to the aptitudes he develops, but only those can reach the

goal who, with persistent effort carried out through a long series of

lives, differentiate themselves in a marked degree from the general

multitude.  Now, that persistent effort must have a beginning, and

granted the beginning, the persistence is not improbable.  Within our

own observation of ordinary life, good habits, even though they may not

be so readily formed as bad ones, are not difficult to maintain in

proportion to the difficulty of their commencement.  For a moment it may

be asked how this may be applied to a succession of lives separate from

each other by a total oblivion of their details;  but it really applies

as directly to the succession of lives as to the succession of days

within one life, which are separated from each other by as many nights.

The certain operation of those affinities in the individual Ego which

are collectively described in the esoteric doctrine by the word Karma,

must operate to pick up the old habits of character and thought, as life

after life comes round, with the same certainty that the thread of

memory in a living brain recovers, day after day, the impressions of

those that have gone before.  Whether a moral habit is thus deliberately

engendered by an occult student in order that it may propagate itself

through future ages, or whether it merely arises from unintelligent

aspirations towards good, which happily for mankind are more widely

spread than occult study as yet, the way it works in each case is the

same.  The unintelligent aspiration towards goodness propagates itself

and leads to good lives in the future;  the intelligent aspiration

propagates itself in the same way plus the propagation of intelligence;

and this distinction shows the gulf of difference which may exist

between the growth of a human soul which merely drifts along the stream

of time, and that of one which is consciously steered by an intelligent

purpose throughout.  The human Ego which acquires the habit of seeking

for knowledge becomes invested, life after life, with the qualifications

which ensure the success of such a search, until the final success,

achieved at some critical period of its existence, carries it right up

into the company of those perfected Egos which are the fully developed

flowers only expected, according to our first metaphor, from a few of

the thousand seeds.  Now, it is clear that a slight impulse in a given

direction, even on the physical plane does not produce the same effect

as a stronger one;  so, exactly in this matter of engendering habits

required to persist in their operation through a succession of lives, it

is quite obvious that the strong impulse of a very ardent aspiration

towards knowledge will be more likely than a weaker one to triumph over

the so called accidents of Nature.

 

This consideration brings us to the question of those habits in life

which are more immediately associated in the popular views of the matter

with the pursuit of occult science.  It will be quite plain that the

generation within his own nature by an occult student of affinities in

the direction of spiritual progress, is a matter which has little if

anything to do with the outer circumstances of his daily life.  It

cannot be dissociated from what may be called the outer circumstances of

his moral life, for an occult student, whose moral nature is consciously

ignoble, and who combines the pursuit of knowledge with the practice of

wrong, becomes by that condition of things a student of sorcery rather

than of true occultism--a candidate for satanic evolution instead of

perfection.  But at the same time the physical habits of life may be

quite the reverse of ascetic, while all the while the thinking processes

of the intellectual life are developing affinities which cannot fail in

the results just seen to produce large ulterior consequences.  Some

misconception is very apt to arise here from the way in which frequent

reference is made to the ascetic habits of those who purpose to become

the regular chelas of Oriental Adepts.  It is supposed that what is

practiced by the Master is necessarily recommended for all his pupils.

Now this is far from being the case as regards the miscellaneous pupils

who are gathering round the occult teachers lately become known to

public report. Certainly even in reference to their miscellaneous pupils

the Adepts would not discountenance asceticism.  As we saw just now,

there is no hard line drawn across the scale on which are defined the

varying consequences of occult study in all its varying degrees of

intensity--so with ascetic practice, from the slightest habits of

self-denial, which may engender a preference for spiritual over material

gratification, up to the very largest developments of asceticism

required as a passport to chelaship, no such practices can be quite

without their consequences in the all-embracing records of Karma.  But,

broadly speaking, asceticism belongs to that species of effort which

aims at personal chelaship, and that which contemplates the patient

development of spiritual growth along the slow track of natural

evolution claims no more, broadly speaking, than intellectual

application.  All that is asserted in regard to the opening now offered

to those who have taken notice of the present opportunity, is, that they

may now give their own evolution an impulse which they may not again

have an opportunity of giving it with the same advantage to themselves

if the present opportunity is thrown aside.  True, it is most unlikely

that any one advancing through Nature, life after life, under the

direction of a fairly creditable Karma, will go on always without

meeting sooner or later with the ideas that occult study implants.  So

that the occultist does not threaten those who turn aside from his

teachings with any consequences that must necessarily be disastrous.

 

He only says that those who listen to them must necessarily derive

advantage from so doing in exact proportion to the zeal with which they

undertake the study and the purity of motive with which they promote it

in others.

 

Nor must it be supposed that those which have here been described as the

lower range of possibilities in connection with occult study, are a mere

fringe upon the higher possibilities, to be regarded as a relatively

poor compensation accorded to those who do not feel equal to offering

themselves for probation as regular chelas.  It would be a grave

misconception of the purpose with which the present stream of occult

teaching has been poured into the world, if we were to think it a

universal incitement to that course of action.  It may be hazardous for

any of us who are not initiates to speak with entire confidence of the

intention of the Adepts, but all the external facts concerned with the

growth and development of the Theosophical Society, show its purpose to

be more directly related to the cultivation of spiritual aspirations

over a wide area, than to the excitement of these with supreme intensity

in individuals.  There are considerations, indeed, which may almost be

said to debar the Adepts from ever doing anything to encourage persons

in whom this supreme intensity of excitement is possible, to take the

very serious step of offering themselves as chelas.  Directly that by

doing this a man renders himself a candidate for something more than the

maximum advantages that can flow to him through the operation of natural

laws--directly that in this way he claims to anticipate the most

favourable course of Nature and to approach high perfection by violent

and artificial processes, he at once puts himself in presence of many

dangers which would never beset him if he contented himself with a

favourable natural growth.  It appears to be always a matter of grave

consideration with the Adepts whether they will take the responsibility

of encouraging any person who may not have it in him to succeed, to

expose himself to these dangers.  For any one who is determined to face

them and is permitted to do so, the considerations put forward above in

regard to the optional character of personal physical training fall to

the ground.  Those ascetic practices which a candidate for nothing more

than the best natural evolution may undertake if he chooses, with the

view of emphasizing his spiritual Karma to the utmost, become a sine qua

non in regard to the very first step of his progress.  But with such

progress the present explanation is not specially concerned.  Its

purpose has been to show the beneficial effects which may flow to

ordinary people living ordinary lives, from even that moderate devotion

to occult philosophy which is compatible with such ordinary lives, and

to guard against the very erroneous belief that occult science is a

pursuit in which it is not worth while to engage, unless Adeptship is

held out to the student as its ultimate result.

 

--Lay Chela

 

 

 

 

Some Inquiries Suggested by Mr. Sinnett's "Esoteric Buddhism"

 

 

The object of the following paper is to submit certain questions which

have occurred to some English readers of "Esoteric Buddhism."  We have

had the great advantage of hearing Mr. Sinnett himself explain many

points which perplexed us;  and it is with his sanction that we now

venture to ask that such light as is permissible may be thrown upon some

difficulties which, so far as we can discover, remain as yet unsolved.

We have refrained from asking questions on subjects on which we

understand that the Adepts forbid inquiry, and we respectfully hope

that, as we approach the subject with a genuine wish to arrive at all

the truth possible to us, our perplexities may be thought worthy of an

authorized solution.

 

We begin, then, with some obvious scientific difficulties.

 

1.  Is the Nebular Theory, as generally held, denied by the Adepts?  It

seems hard to conceive of the alternate evolution from the sun's central

mass of planets, some of them visible and heavy, others invisible,--and

apparently without weight, as they have no influence on the movements of

the visible planets.

 

2.  And, further, the time necessary for the manvantara even of one

planetary chain, much more of all seven, seems largely to exceed the

probable time during which the sun can retain heat, if it is merely a

cooling mass, which derives no important accession of heat from without.

Is some other view as regards the maintenance of the sun's heat held by

the Adepts?

 

3.  The different races which succeed each other on the earth are said

to be separated by catastrophes, among which continental subsidences

occupy a prominent place.  Is it meant that these subsidences are so

sudden and unforeseen as to sweep away great nations in an hour?  Or, if

not, how is it that no appreciable trace is left of such high

civilizations as are described in the past?  Is it supposed that our

present European civilization, with its offshoots all over the globe,

can be destroyed by any inundation or conflagration which leaves life

still existing on the earth?  Are our existing arts and languages doomed

to perish? or was it only the earlier races who were thus profoundly

disjoined from one another?

 

4.  The moon is said to be the scene of a life even more immersed in

matter than the life on earth.  Are there then material organizations

living there?  If so, how do they dispense with air and water, and how

is it that our telescopes discern no trace of their works?  We should

much like a fuller account of the Adepts' view of the moon, as so much

is already known of her material conditions that further knowledge could

be more easily adjusted than in the case (for instance) of planets

wholly invisible.

 

5.  Is the expression "a mineral monad" authorized by the Adepts? If so,

what relation does the monad bear to the atom, or the molecule, of

ordinary scientific hypothesis?  And does each mineral monad eventually

become a vegetable monad, and then at last a human being?  Turning now

to some historical difficulties, we would ask as follows:--

 

6. Is there not some confusion in the letter quoted on p. 62 of

"Esoteric Buddhism," where "the old Greeks and Romans" are said to have

been Atlanteans?  The Greeks and Romans were surely Aryans, like the

Adepts and ourselves:  their language being, as one may say,

intermediate between Sanscrit and modern European dialects.

 

7.  Buddha's birth is placed (on p. 141) in the year 643 B.C.. Is this

date given by the Adepts as undoubtedly correct?  Have they any view as

to the new inscriptions of Asoka (as given by General A. Cunningham,

"Corpus Inscriptionum Indicanum," vol. I. pp. 20-23), on the strength of

which Buddha's Nirvana is placed by Barth ("Religions of India," p.

106), &c., about 476 B.C., and his birth therefore at about 556 B.C.?

It would be exceedingly interesting if the Adepts would give a sketch

however brief of the history of India in those centuries with authentic

dates.

 

8. Sankaracharya's date is variously given by Orientalists, but always

after Christ.  Barth, for instance, places him about 788 A.D.  In

"Esoteric Buddhism" he is made to succeed Buddha almost immediately (p.

149).  Can this discrepancy be explained?  Has not Sankaracharya been

usually classed as Vishnuite in his teaching?  And similarly has not

Gaudapada been accounted a Sivite?  and placed much later than "Esoteric

Buddhism" (p.147) places him?  We would willingly pursue this line of

inquiry, but think it best to wait and see to what extent the Adepts may

be willing to clear up some of the problems in Indian religious history

on which, as it would seem, they must surely possess knowledge which

might be communicated to lay students without indiscretion.

 

We pass on to some points beyond the ordinary range of science or

history on which we should be very glad to hear more, if possible.

 

9. We should like to understand more clearly the nature of the

subjective intercourse with beloved souls enjoyed in Devachan. Say, for

instance, that I die and leave on earth some young children.  Are these

children present to my consciousness in Devachan still as children?  Do

I imagine that they have died when I died? or do I merely imagine them

as adult without knowing their life-history? or do I miss them from

Devachan until they do actually die, and then hear from them their

life-history as it has proceeded between my death and theirs?

 

10.  We do not quite understand the amount of reminiscence attained at

various points in the soul's progress.  Do the Adepts, who, we presume,

are equivalent to sixth rounders, recollect their previous incarnations?

Do all souls which live on into the sixth round attain this power of

remembrance? or does the Devachan, at the end of each round bring a

recollection of all the Devachans, or of all the incarnations, which

have formed a part of that particular round?  And does reminiscence

carry with it the power of so arranging future incarnations as still to

remain in company with some chosen soul or group of souls?

 

We have many more questions to ask, but we scruple to intrude further.

And I will conclude here by repeating the remark with which we are most

often met when we speak of the Adepts to English friends.  We find that

our friends do not often ask for so-called miracles or marvels to prove

the genuineness of the Adepts' powers.  But they ask why the Adepts will

not give some proof--not necessarily that they are far beyond us, but

that their knowledge does at least equal our own in the familiar and

definite tracks which Western science has worn for itself.  A few

pregnant remarks on Chemistry,--the announcement of a new electrical

law, capable of experimental verification--some such communication as

this (our interlocutors say), would arrest attention, command respect,

and give a weight and prestige to the higher teaching which, so long as

it remains in a region wholly unverifiable, it can scarcely acquire.

 

We gratefully recognize the very acceptable choice which the Adepts have

made in selecting Mr. Sinnett as the intermediary between us and them.

They could hardly have chosen any one more congenial to our Western

minds:--whether we consider the clearness of his written style, the

urbanity of his verbal expositions, or the earnest sincerity of his

convictions.  Since they have thus far met our peculiar needs with such

considerate judgment, we cannot but hope that they may find themselves

able yet further to adapt their modes of teaching to the requirements of

Occidental thought.

 

--An English F.T.S.

London, July 1883.

 

 

 

Reply to an English F.T.S

 

 

Answers

 

It was not in contemplation, at the outset of the work begun in

Fragments, to deal as fully with the scientific problems of cosmic

evolution as now seems expected.  A distinct promise was made, as Mr.

Sinnett is well aware, to acquaint the readers with the outlines of

Esoteric doctrines and--no more.  A good deal would be given, much more

kept back.

 

This seeming unwillingness to share with the world some of Nature's

secrets that may have come into the possession of the few, arises from

causes quite different from the one generally assigned.  It is not

SELFISHNESS erecting a Chinese wall between occult science and those who

would know more of it, without making any distinction between the simply

curious profane, and the earnest, ardent seeker after truth.  Wrong and

unjust are those who think so;  who attribute to indifference for other

people's welfare a policy necessitated, on the contrary, by a far-seeing

universal philanthropy;  who accuse the custodians of lofty physical and

spiritual though long rejected truths, of holding them high above the

people's heads.  In truth, the inability to reach them lies entirely

with the seekers.  Indeed, the chief reason among many others for such a

reticence, at any rate, with regard to secrets pertaining to physical

sciences--is to be sought elsewhere.*  It rests entirely on the

impossibility of imparting that the nature of which is at the present

stage of the world's development, beyond the comprehension of the

would-be learners, however intellectual and however scientifically

trained may be the latter.  This tremendous difficulty is now explained

to the few, who, besides having read "Esoteric Buddhism," have studied

and understood the several occult axioms approached in it.  It is safe

to say that it will not be even vaguely realized by the general reader,

but will offer the pretext for sheer abuse.  Nay, it has already.

 

-------

* Needless to remind AN ENGLISH F.T.S. that what is said here, applies

only to secrets the nature of which when revealed will not be turned

into a weapon against humanity in general, or its units--men.  Secrets

of such class could not be given to any one but a regular chela of many

years' standing and during his successive initiations;  mankind as a

whole has first to come of age, to reach its majority, which will happen

but toward the beginning of its sixth race--before such mysteries can be

safely revealed to it.  The vril is not altogether a fiction, as some

chelas and even "lay" chelas know.

---------

 

It is simply that the gradual development of man's seven principles and

physical senses has to be coincident and on parallel lines with Rounds

and Root-races.  Our fifth race has so far developed but its five

senses.  Now, if the Kama or Will-principle of the "Fourth-rounders" has

already reached that stage of its evolution when the automatic acts, the

unmotivated instincts and impulses of its childhood and youth, instead

of following external stimuli, will have become acts of will framed

constantly in conjunction with the mind (Manas), thus making of every

man on earth of that race a free agent, a fully responsible being--the

Kama of our hardly adult fifth race is only slowly approaching it.  As

to the sixth sense of this, our race, it has hardly sprouted above the

soil of its materiality.  It is highly unreasonable, therefore, to

expect for the men of the fifth to sense the nature and essence of that

which will be fully sensed and perceived but by the sixth--let alone the

seventh race--i.e., to enjoy the legitimate outgrowth of the evolution

and endowments of the future races with only the help of our present

limited senses.  The exceptions to this quasi-universal rule have been

hitherto found only in some rare cases of constitutional, abnormally

precocious individual evolutions;  or, in such, where by early training

and special methods, reaching the stage of the fifth rounders, some men

in addition to the natural gift of the latter have fully developed (by

certain occult methods) their sixth, and in still rarer cases their

seventh, sense.  As an instance of the former class may be cited the

Seeress of Prevorst;  a creature born out of time, a rare precocious

growth, ill adapted to the uncongenial atmosphere that surrounded her,

hence a martyr ever ailing and sickly.  As an example of the other, the

Count St. Germain may be mentioned.  Apace with the anthropological and

physiological development of man runs his spiritual evolution.  To the

latter, purely intellectual growth is often more an impediment than a

help.  An instance:  radiant stuff--"the fourth state of matter"--has

been hardly discovered, and no one--the eminent discoverer himself not

excepted--has yet any idea of its full importance, its possibilities,

its connection with physical phenomena, or even its bearing upon the

most puzzling scientific problems.  How then can any "Adept" attempt to

prove the fallacy of much that is predicated in the nebular and solar

theories when the only means by which he could successfully prove his

position is an appeal to, and the exhibition of, that sixth sense--

consciousness which the physicist cannot postulate?  Is not this plain?

 

Thus, the obstacle is not that the "Adepts" would "forbid inquiry," but

rather the personal, present limitations of the senses of the average,

and even of the scientific man.  To undertake the explanation of that

which at the outset would be rejected as a physical impossibility, the

outcome of hallucination, is unwise and even harmful, because premature.

It is in consequence of such difficulties that the psychic production of

physical phenomena--save in exceptional cases--is strictly forbidden.

 

And now, "Adepts" are asked to meddle with astronomy--a science which,

of all the branches of human knowledge has yielded the most accurate

information, afforded the most mathematically correct data, and of the

achievements in which the men of science feel the most justly proud!  It

is true that on the whole astronomy has achieved triumphs more brilliant

than those of most other sciences.  But if it has done much in the

direction of satisfying man's straining and thirsting mind and his

noble aspirations for knowledge, physical as to its most important

particulars, it has ever laughed at man's puny efforts to wrest the

great secrets of Infinitude by the help of only mechanical apparatus.

While the spectroscope has shown the probable similarity of terrestrial

and sidereal substance, the chemical actions peculiar to the variously

progressed orbs of space have not been detected, nor proven to be

identical with those observed on our own planet.  In this particular,

Esoteric Psychology may be useful.  But who of the men of science would

consent to confront it with their own handiwork? Who of them would

recognise the superiority and greater trustworthiness of the Adept's

knowledge over their own hypotheses, since in their case they can claim

the mathematical correctness of their deductive reasonings based on the

alleged unerring precision of the modern instruments;  while the Adepts

can claim but their knowledge of the ultimate nature of the materials

they have worked with for ages, resulting in the phenomena produced.

However much it may he urged that a deductive argument, besides being an

incomplete syllogistic form, may often be in conflict with fact;  that

their major propositions may not always be correct, although the

predicates of their conclusions seem correctly drawn--spectrum analysis

will not be acknowledged as inferior to purely spiritual research.  Nor,

before developing his sixth sense, will the man of science concede the

error of his theories as to the solar spectrum, unless he abjure, to

some degree at least, his marked weakness for conditional and

disjunctive syllogisms ending in eternal dilemmas.  At present the

"Adepts" do not see any help for it.  Were these invisible and unknown

profanes to interfere with--not to say openly contradict--the dicta of

the Royal Society, contempt and ridicule, followed by charges of crass

ignorance of the first elementary principles of modern science would be

their only reward;  while those who would lend an ear to their

"vagaries," would be characterized immediately as types of the "mild

lunatics" of the age.  Unless, indeed, the whole of that August body

should be initiated into the great Mysteries at once, and without any

further ado or the preliminary and usual preparations or training, the

F.R.S.'s could be miraculously endowed with the required sixth sense,

the Adepts fear the task would be profitless.  The latter have given

quite enough, little though it may seem, for the purposes of a first

trial.  The sequence of martyrs to the great universal truths has never

been once broken;  and the long list of known and unknown sufferers,

headed with the name of Galileo, now closes with that of Zollner. Is the

world of science aware of the real cause of Zollner's premature death?

When the fourth dimension of space becomes a scientific reality like the

fourth state of matter, he may have a statue raised to him by grateful

posterity.  But this will neither recall him to life, nor will it

obliterate the days and months of mental agony that harassed the soul of

this intuitional, far-seeing, modest genius, made even after his death

to receive the donkey's kick of misrepresentation and to be publicly

charged with lunacy.

 

Hitherto, astronomy could grope between light and darkness only with the

help of the uncertain guidance offered it by analogy. It has reduced to

fact and mathematical precision the physical motion and the paths of the

heavenly bodies, and--no more.  So far, it has been unable to discover

with any approach to certainty the physical constitution of either sun,

stars, or even cometary matter.  Of the latter, it seems to know no more

than was taught 5,000 years ago by the official astronomers of old

Chaldea and Egypt--namely, that it is vaporous, since it transmits the

rays of stars and planets without any sensible obstruction.  But let the

modern chemist be asked to tell one whether this matter is in any way

connected with, or akin to, that of any of the gases he is acquainted

with;  or again, to any of the solid elements of his chemistry.  The

probable answer received will be very little calculated to solve the

world's perplexity;  since, all hypotheses to the contrary

notwithstanding, cometary matter does not appear to possess even the

common law of adhesion or of chemical affinity.  The reason for it is

very simple.  And the truth ought long ago to have dawned upon the

experimentalists, since our little world (though so repeatedly visited

by the hairy and bearded travelers, enveloped in the evanescent veil of

their tails, and otherwise brought in contact with that matter) has

neither been smothered by an addition of nitrogen gas, nor deluged by an

excess of hydrogen, nor yet perceptibly affected by a surplus of oxygen.

The essence of cometary matter must be--and the "Adepts" say is--totally

different from any of the chemical or physical characteristics with

which the greatest chemists and physicists of the earth are familiar--

all recent hypotheses to the contrary notwithstanding.  It is to be

feared that before the real nature of the elder progeny of Mula Prakriti

is detected, Mr. Crookes will have to discover matter of the fifth or

extra radiant state;  et seq.

 

Thus, while the astronomer has achieved marvels in the elucidation of

the visible relations of the orbs of space, he has learnt nothing of

their inner constitution.  His science has led him no farther towards a

reading of that inner mystery than has that of the geologist, who can

tell us only of the earth's superficial layers, and that of the

physiologist, who has until now been able to deal only with man's outer

shell, or Sthula Sarira.  Occultists have asserted, and go on asserting

daily, the fallacy of judging the essence by its outward manifestations,

the ultimate nature of the life-principle by the circulation of the

blood, mind by the gray matter of the brain, and the physical

constitution of sun, stars and comets by our terrestrial chemistry and

the matter of our own planet.  Verily and indeed, no microscopes,

spectroscopes, telescopes, photometers, or other physical apparatuses

can ever be focused on either the macro-or micro-cosmical highest

principles, nor will the mayavirupa of either yield its mystery to

physical inquiry.  The methods of spiritual research and psychological

observation are the only efficient agencies to employ.  We have to

proceed by analogy in everything to be sure.  Yet the candid men of

science must very soon find out that it is not sufficient to examine a

few stars--a handful of sand, as it were, from the margin of the

shoreless, cosmic ocean--to conclude that these stars are the same as

all other stars--our earth included;  that, because they have attained a

certain very great telescopic power, and gauged an area enclosed in the

smallest of spaces when compared with what remains, they have,

therefore, concurrently perfected the survey of all that exists within

even that limited space.  For, in truth, they have done nothing of the

kind.  They have had only a superficial glance at that which is made

visible to them under the present conditions, with the limited power of

their vision.  And even though it were helped by telescopes of a

hundred-fold stronger power than that of Lord Rosse, or the new Lick

Observatory, the case would not alter.  No physical instrument will ever

help astronomy to scan distances of the immensity of which that of

Sirius, situated at the trifle of 130,125,000,000,000 miles away from

the outer boundary of the spherical area, or even that of (a) Capella,

with its extra trifle of 295,355,000,000,000* miles still farther away,

can give them, as they themselves are well aware, the faintest idea.

For, though an Adept is unable to cross bodily (i.e., in his astral

shape) the limits of the solar system,  yet he knows that, far

stretching beyond the telescopic power of detection, there are systems

upon systems, the smallest of which would, when compared with the system

of Sirius, make the latter seem like an atom of dust imbedded in the

great Shamo desert.  The eye of the astronomer, who thinks he also knows

of the existence of such systems, has never rested upon them, has never

caught of them, even that spectral glimpse, fanciful and hazy as the

incoherent vision in a slumbering mind that he has occasionally had of

other systems, and yet he verily believes he has gauged INFINITUDE! And

yet these immeasurably distant worlds are brought as clear and near to

the spiritual eye of the astral astronomer as a neighbouring bed of

daisies may be to the eye of the botanist.

 

--------

* The figures are given from the mathematical calculations of exoteric

Western astronomy.  Esoteric astronomy may prove them false some day.

--------

 

Thus, the "Adepts" of the present generation, though unable to help the

profane astronomer by explaining the ultimate essence, or even the

material constitution, of star and planet, since European science,

knowing nothing as yet of the existence of such substances, or more

properly of their various states or conditions, has neither proper terms

for, nor can form any adequate idea of them by any description, they

may, perchance, be able to prove what this matter is not--and this is

more than sufficient for all present purposes.  The next best thing to

learning what is true is to ascertain what is not true.

 

Having thus anticipated a few general objections, and traced a limit to

expectations, since there is no need of drawing any veil of mystery

before "An English F.T.S.," his few questions may be partially answered.

The negative character of the replies draws a sufficiently strong line

of demarcation between the views of the Adepts and those of Western

science to afford some useful hints at least.

 

Question 1.--Do the Adepts deny the Nebular Theory?

 

Answer:--No;  they do not deny its general propositions, nor the

approximative truths of the scientific hypotheses.  They only deny the

completeness of the present, as well as the entire error of the many

so-called "exploded" old theories, which, during the last century, have

followed each other in such rapid succession. For instance:  while

denying, with Laplace, Herschel and others, that the variable patches of

light perceived on the nebulous background of the galaxy ever belonged

to remote worlds in the process of formation;  and agreeing with modern

science that they proceed from no aggregation of formless matter, but

belong simply to clusters of "stars" already formed;  they yet add that

many of such clusters, that pass in the opinion of the astro-physicists

for stars and worlds already evoluted, are in fact but collections of

the various materials made ready for future worlds.  Like bricks already

baked, of various qualities, shapes and colour, that are no longer

formless clay but have become fit units of a future wall, each of them

having a fixed and distinctly assigned space to occupy in some

forthcoming building, are these seemingly adult worlds.  The astronomer

has no means of recognizing their relative adolescence, except perhaps

by making a distinction between the star clusters with the usual orbital

motion and mutual gravitation, and those termed, we believe, irregular

star-clusters of very capricious and changeful appearances.  Thrown

together as though at random, and seemingly in utter violation of the

law of symmetry, they defy observation: such, for instance, are 5 M.

Lyrae, 5 2 M. Cephei, Dumb-Bell, and some others.  Before an emphatic

contradiction of what precedes is attempted, and ridicule offered

perchance, it would not be amiss to ascertain the nature and character

of those other so-called "temporary" stars, whose periodicity, though

never actually proven, is yet allowed to pass unquestioned.  What are

these stars which, appearing suddenly in matchless magnificence and

splendour, disappear as mysteriously as unexpectedly, without leaving a

single trace behind?  Whence do they appear?  Whither are they engulfed?

In the great cosmic deep--we say.  The bright "brick" is caught by the

hand of the mason--directed by that Universal Architect which destroys

but to rebuild.  It has found its place in the cosmic structure and will

perform its mission to its last Manvantaric hour.

 

Another point most emphatically denied by the "Adepts" is, that there

exist in the whole range of visible heavens any spaces void of starry

worlds.  There are stars, worlds and systems within as without the

systems made visible to man, and even within our own atmosphere, for all

the physicist knows.  The "Adept" affirms in this connection that

orthodox, or so-called official science, uses very often the word

"infinitude" without attaching to it any adequate importance;  rather as

a flower of speech than a term implying an awful, a most mysterious

Reality.  When an astronomer is found in his Reports "gauging

infinitude," even the most intuitional of his class is but too often apt

to forget that he is gauging only the superficies of a small area and

its visible depths, and to speak of these as though they were merely the

cubic contents of some known quantity.  This is the direct result of the

present conception of a three-dimensional space.  The turn of a

four-dimensional world is near, but the puzzle of science will ever

continue until their concepts reach the natural dimensions of visible

and invisible space--in its septenary completeness.  "The Infinite and

the Absolute are only the names for two counter-imbecilities of the

human (uninitiated) mind;" and to regard them as the transmuted

"properties of the nature of things--of two subjective negatives

converted into objective affirmatives," as Sir W. Hamilton puts it, is

to know nothing of the infinite operations of human liberated spirit, or

of its attributes, the first of which is its ability to pass beyond the

region of our terrestrial experience of matter and space.  As an

absolute vacuum is an impossibility below, so is it a like impossibility

above. But our molecules, the infinitesimals of the vacuum "below," are

replaced by the giant-atom of the Infinitude "above."  When

demonstrated, the four-dimensional conception of space may lead to the

invention of new instruments to explore the extremely dense matter that

surrounds us as a ball of pitch might surround--say, a fly, but which,

in our extreme ignorance of all its properties save those we find it

exercising on our earth, we yet call the clear, the serene, and the

transparent atmosphere.  This is no psychology, but simply occult

physics, which can never confound "substance" with "centres of Force,"

to use the terminology of a Western science which is ignorant of Maya.

In less than a century, besides telescopes, microscopes, micrographs and

telephones, the Royal Society will have to offer a premium for such an

etheroscope.

 

It is also necessary in connection with the question under reply that

"An English F.T.S." should know that the "Adepts" of the Good Law reject

gravity as at present explained.  They deny that the so-called "impact

theory" is the only one that is tenable in the gravitation hypothesis.

They say, that if all efforts made by the physicists to connect it with

ether, in order to explain electric and magnetic distance-action have

hitherto proved complete failures, it is again due to the race ignorance

of the ultimate states of matter in Nature, and, foremost of all, of the

real nature of the solar stuff.  Believing but in the law of mutual

magneto-electric attraction and repulsion, they agree with those who

have come to the conclusion that "Universal gravitation is a weak

force," utterly incapable of accounting for even one small portion of

the phenomena of motion.  In the same connection they are forced to

suggest that science may he wrong in her indiscriminate postulation of

centrifugal force, which is neither a universal nor a consistent law.

To cite but one instance this force is powerless to account for the

spheroidal oblateness of certain planets.  For if the bulge of planetary

equators and the shortening of their polar axes is to be attributed to

centrifugal force, instead of being simply the result of the powerful

influence of solar electro-magnetic attraction, "balanced by concentric

rectification of each planet's own gravitation achieved by rotation on

its axis," to use an astronomer's phraseology (neither very clear nor

correct, yet serving our purpose to show the many flaws in the system),

why should there be such difficulty in answering the objection that the

differences in the equatorial rotation and density of various planets

are directly in opposition to this theory?  How long shall we see even

great mathematicians bolstering up fallacies to supply an evident

hiatus!  The "Adepts" have never claimed superior or any knowledge of

Western astronomy and other sciences.  Yet turning even to the most

elementary textbooks used in the schools of India, they find that the

centrifugal theory of Western birth is unable to cover all the ground.

That, unaided, it can neither account for every spheroid oblate, nor

explain away such evident difficulties as are presented by the relative

density of some planets.  How indeed can any calculation of centrifugal

force explain to us, for instance, why Mercury, whose rotation is, we

are told, only "about one-third that of the Earth, and its density only

about one-fourth greater than the Earth," should have a polar

compression more than ten times greater than the latter?  And again, why

Jupiter, whose equatorial rotation is said to be "twenty-seven times

greater, and its density only about one-fifth that of the Earth," should

have its polar compression seventeen times greater than that of the

Earth?  Or, why Saturn, with an equatorial velocity fifty-five times

greater than Mercury for centrifugal force to contend with, should have

its polar compression only three times greater than Mercury's?  To crown

the above contradictions, we are asked to believe in the Central Forces

as taught by modern science, even when told that the equatorial matter

of the sun, with more than four times the centrifugal velocity of the

earth's equatorial surface and only about one-fourth part of the

gravitation of the equatorial matter, has not manifested any tendency to

bulge out at the solar equator, nor shown the least flattening at the

poles of the solar axis.  In other and clearer words, the sun, with only

one-fourth of our earth's density for the centrifugal force to work

upon, has no polar compression at all!  We find this objection made by

more than one astronomer, yet never explained away satisfactorily so far

as the "Adepts" are aware.

 

Therefore do they say that the great men of science of the West, knowing

nothing or next to nothing either about cometary matter, centrifugal and

centripetal forces, the nature of the nebulae, or the physical

constitution of the sun, stars, or even the moon, are imprudent to speak

so confidently as they do about the "central mass of the sun" whirling

out into space planets, comets, and whatnot.  Our humble opinion being

wanted, we maintain:  that it evolutes out, but the life principle, the

soul of these bodies, giving and receiving it back in our little solar

system, as the "Universal Life-giver," the ONE LIFE gives and receives

it in the Infinitude and Eternity;  that the Solar System is as much the

Microcosm of the One Macrocosm, as man is the former when compared with

his own little solar cosmos.

 

What are the proofs of science?  The solar spots (a misnomer, like much

of the rest)?  But these do not prove the solidity of the "central

mass," any more than the storm-clouds prove the solid mass of the

atmosphere behind them.  Is it the non-coextensiveness of the sun's

body with its apparent luminous dimensions, the said "body" appearing

"a solid mass, a dark sphere of matter confined within a fiery

prison-house, a robe of fiercest flames?"  We say that there is indeed a

"prisoner" behind, but that having never yet been seen by any physical,

mortal eye, what he allows to be seen of him is merely a gigantic

reflection, an illusive phantasma of "solar appendages of some sort," as

Mr. Proctor honestly calls it.  Before saying anything further, we will

consider the next interrogatory.

 

 

 

Question II.--Is the Sun merely a cooling mass?

 

Such is the accepted theory of modern science:  it is not what the

"Adepts" teach.  The former says--the sun "derives no important

accession of heat from without:"--the latter answer--"the sun needs it

not."  He is quite as self dependent as he is self-luminous;  and for

the maintenance of his heat requires no help, no foreign accession of

vital energy;  for he is the heart of his system, a heart that will not

cease its throbbing until its hour of rest shall come.  Were the sun "a

cooling mass," our great life-giver would have indeed grown dim with age

by this time, and found some trouble to keep his watch-fires burning for

the future races to accomplish their cycles, and the planetary chains to

achieve their rounds.  There would remain no hope for evoluting

humanity;  except perhaps in what passes for science in the astronomical

textbooks of Missionary Schools--namely, that "the sun has an orbital

journey of a hundred millions of years before him, and the system yet

but seven thousand years old!" (Prize Book, "Astronomy for General

Readers.")

 

The "Adepts," who are thus forced to demolish before they can

reconstruct, deny most emphatically (a) that the sun is in combustion,

in any ordinary sense of the word;  or (b) that he is incandescent, or

even burning, though he is glowing;  or (c) that his luminosity has

already begun to weaken and his power of combustion may be exhausted

within a given and conceivable time; or even (d) that his chemical and

physical constitution contains any of the elements of terrestrial

chemistry in any of the states that either chemist or physicist is

acquainted with.  With reference to the latter, they add that, properly

speaking, though the body of the sun--a body that was never yet

reflected by telescope or spectroscope that man invented--cannot be said

to be constituted of those terrestrial elements with the state of which

the chemist is familiar, yet that these elements are all present in the

sun's outward robes, and a host more of elements unknown so far to

science.  There seems little need, indeed, to have waited so long for

the lines belonging to these respective elements to correspond with dark

lines of the solar spectrum to know that no element present on our earth

could ever be possibly found wanting in the sun;  although, on the other

hand, there are many others in the sun which have either not reached or

not as yet been discovered on our globe.  Some may be missing in certain

stars and heavenly bodies still in the process of formation;  or,

properly speaking, though present in them, these elements on account of

their undeveloped state may not respond as yet to the usual scientific

tests.  But how can the earth possess that which the sun has never had?

The "Adepts" affirm as a fact that the true Sun--an invisible orb of

which the known one is the shell, mask, or clothing--has in him the

spirit of every element that exists in the solar system;  and his

"Chromosphere," as Mr. Lockyer named it, has the same, only in a far

more developed condition, though still in a state unknown on earth;  our

planet having to await its further growth and development before any of

its elements can be reduced to the condition they are in within that

chromosphere.  Nor can the substance producing the coloured light in the

latter be properly called solid, liquid, or even "gaseous," as now

supposed, for it is neither.  Thousands of years before Leverrier and

Padri Secchi, the old Aryans sung of Surya .... "hiding behind his

Yogi,* robes his head that no one could see;"  the ascetic's dress

being, as all know, dyed expressly into a red-yellow hue, a colouring

matter with pinkish patches on it, rudely representing the vital

principle in man's blood--the symbol of the vital principle in the sun,

or what is now called chromosphere.  The "rose-coloured region!"  How

little astronomers will ever know of its real nature, even though

hundreds of eclipses furnish them with the indisputable evidence of its

presence.  The sun is so thickly surrounded by a shell of this "red

matter," that it is useless for them to speculate with only the help of

their physical instruments, upon the nature of that which they can never

see or detect with mortal eye behind that brilliant, radiant zone of

matter.

 

---------

* There is an interesting story in the Puranas relating to this subject.

The Devas, it would appear, asked the great Rishi Vasishta to bring the

sun into Satya Loka.  The Rishi requested the Sun-god to do so.  The

Sun-god replied that all the worlds would be destroyed if he were to

leave his place.  The Rishi then offered to place his red-coloured cloth

(Kashay Vastram) in the place of the sun's disk, and did so.  The

visible body of the sun is this robe of Vasishta, it would seem.

---------

 

If the "Adepts" are asked:  "What then, in your views, is the nature of

our sun and what is there beyond that cosmic veil?"--they answer:

beyond rotates and beats the heart and head of our system; externally is

spread its robe, the nature of which is not matter, whether solid,

liquid, or gaseous, such as you are acquainted with, but vital

electricity, condensed and made visible.*

 

---------

* If the "English F.T.S." would take the trouble of consulting p. 11 of

the "Magia Adamica" of Eugenius Philalethes, his learned compatriot, he

would find therein the difference between a visible and an invisible

planet is clearly hinted at as it was safe to do at a time when the iron

claw of orthodoxy had the power as well as disposition to tear the flesh

from heretic bones.  "The earth is invisible," says he, .... "and which

is more, the eye of man never saw the earth, nor can it be seen

without art.  To make this element visible is the greatest secret in

magic .... As for this feculent, gross body upon which we walk, it is

a compost, and no earth but it hath earth in it .... in a word, all the

elements are visible but one, namely, the earth:  and when thou hast

attained to so much perfection as to know why God hath placed the earth

in abscondito, thou hast an excellent figure whereby to know God

himself, and how he is visible, how invisible,"  The italics are the

author's, it being the custom of the Alchemists to emphasize those words

which had a double meaning in their code.  Here "God himself" visible

and invisible, relates to their lapis philosophorum--Nature's seventh

principle.

----------

 

And if the statement is objected to on the grounds that were the

luminosity of the sun due to any other cause than combustion and flame,

no physical law of which Western science has any knowledge could account

for the existence of such intensely high temperature of the sun without

combustion;  that such a temperature, besides burning with its light and

flame every visible thing in our universe, would show its luminosity of

a homogeneous and uniform intensity throughout, which it does not; that

undulations and disturbances in the photosphere, the growing of the

"protuberances," and a fierce raging of elements in combustion have been

observed in the sun, with their tongues of fire and spots exhibiting

every appearance of cyclonic motion, and "solar storms," &c. &c.;  to

this the only answer that can be given is the following:  the

appearances are all there, yet it is not combustion.  Undoubtedly were

the "robes," the dazzling drapery which now envelopes the whole of the

sun's globe, withdrawn, or even "the shining atmosphere which permits us

to see the sun" (as Sir William Herschel thought) removed so as to allow

one trifling rent, our whole universe would be reduced to ashes.

Jupiter Fulminator revealing himself to his beloved would incinerate her

instantly.  But it can never be.  The protecting shell is of a thickness

and at a distance from the universal HEART that call hardly be ever

calculated by your mathematicians. And how can they hope to see the

sun's inner body once that the existence of that "chromosphere" is

ascertained, though its actual density may be still unknown, when one of

the greatest, if not the greatest, of their authorities--Sir W.

Herschel--says the following:  "The sun, also, has its atmosphere, and

if some of the fluids which enter into its composition should be of a

shining brilliancy, while others are merely transparent, any temporary

cause which may remove the lucid fluid will permit us to see the body of

the sun through the transparent ones."  The underlined words, written

nearly eighty years ago, embody the wrong hypothesis that the body of

the sun might be seen under such circumstances, whereas it is only the

far-away layers of "the lucid fluid" that would be perceived.  And what

the great astronomer adds invalidates entirely the first portion of his

assumption:  "If an observer were placed on the moon, he would see the

solid body of our earth only in those places where the transparent

fluids of the atmosphere would permit him.  In others, the opaque

vapours would reflect the light of the sun without permitting his view

to penetrate to the surface of our globe."  Thus, if the atmosphere of

our earth, which in its relation to the "atmosphere" (?) of the sun is

like the tenderest skin of a fruit compared with the thickest husk of a

cocoa-nut, would prevent the eye of an observer standing on the moon

from penetrating everywhere "to the surface of our globe," how can an

astronomer ever expect his sight to penetrate to the sun's surface, from

our earth and at a distance of from 85 to 95 million miles,* whereas,

the moon, we are told, is only about 238,000 miles!

 

--------

* Verily, "absolute accuracy in the solution of this problem (of

distances between the heavenly bodies and the earth) is simply out of

the question."

----------

 

The proportionately larger size of the sun does not bring it any the

more within the scope of our physical vision.  Truly remarks Sir W.

Herschel that the sun "has been called a globe of fire, perhaps

metaphorically!"  It has been supposed that the dark spots were solid

bodies revolving near the sun's surface.  "They have been conjectured to

be the smoke of volcanoes the scum floating upon an ocean of fluid

matter.... They have been taken for clouds .... explained to be opaque

masses swimming in the fluid matter of the sun...."  When all his

anthropomorphic conceptions are put aside, Sir John Herschel, whose

intuition was still greater than his great learning, alone of all

astronomers comes near the truth--far nearer than any of those modern

astronomers who, while admiring his gigantic learning, smile at his

"imaginative and fanciful theories."  His only mistake, now shared by

most astronomers, was that he regarded the "opaque body" occasionally

observed through the curtain of the "luminous envelope" as the sun

itself.  When saying in the course of his speculations upon the Nasmyth

willow-leaf theory--"the definite shape of these objects, their exact

similarity one to another.... all these characters seem quite repugnant

to the notion of their being of a vaporous, a cloudy, or a fluid

nature"--his spiritual intuition served him better than his remarkable

knowledge of physical science.  When he adds:  "Nothing remains but to

consider them as separate and independent sheets, flakes.... having some

sort of solidity.... Be they what they may, they are evidently the

immediate sources of the solar light and heat"--he utters a grander

physical truth than was ever uttered by any living astronomer.  And

when, furthermore, we find him postulating--"looked at in this point of

view, we cannot refuse to regard them as organisms of some peculiar and

amazing kind; and though it would be too daring to speak of such

organization as partaking of the nature of life, yet we do know that

vital action is competent to develop at once heat, and light, and

electricity," Sir John Herschel gives out a theory approximating an

occult truth more than any of the profane ever did with regard to solar

physics.  These "wonderful objects" are not, as a modern astronomer

interprets Sir J. Herschel's words, "solar inhabitants, whose fiery

constitution enables them to illuminate, warm and electricize the whole

solar system," but simply the reservoirs of solar vital energy, the

vital electricity that feeds the whole system in which it lives, and

breathes, and has its being.  The sun is, as we say, the storehouse of

our little cosmos, self-generating its vital fluid, and ever receiving a

much as it gives out.  Were the astronomers to be asked--what definite

and positive fact exists at the root of their solar theory--what

knowledge they have of solar combustion and atmosphere--they might,

perchance, feel embarrassed when confronted with all their present

theories.  For it is sufficient to make a resume of what the solar

physicists do not know, to gain conviction that they are as far as ever

from a definite knowledge of the constitution and ultimate nature of the

heavenly bodies.  We may, perhaps, be permitted to enumerate:--

 

Beginning with, as Mr. Proctor wisely calls it, "the wildest assumption

possible," that there is, in accordance with the law of analogy, some

general resemblance between the materials in, and the processes at work

upon, the sun, and those materials with which terrestrial chemistry and

physics are familiar, what is that sum of results achieved by

spectroscopic and other analyses of the surface and the inner

constitution of the sun, which warrants any one in establishing the

axiom of the sun's combustion and gradual extinction?  They have no

means, as they themselves daily confess, of experimenting upon, hence of

determining, the sun's physical condition;  for (a) they are ignorant of

the atmospheric limits;  (b) even though it were proved that matter,

such as they know of, is continuously falling upon the sun, being

ignorant of its real velocity and the nature of the material it falls

upon, they are unable "to discuss of the effect of motions wholly

surpassing in velocity .... enormously exceeding even the inconceivable

velocity of many meteors;"  (c) confessedly--they "have no means of

learning whence that part of the light comes which gives the continuous

spectrum".... hence no means of determining how great a depth of the

solar substance is concerned in sending out that light.  This light "may

come from the surface layers only;"  and, "it may be but a shell" ....

(truly!);  and finally, (d) they have yet to learn "how far combustion,

properly so-called, can take place within the sun's mass;"  and "whether

these processes, which we (they) recognize as combustion, are the only

processes of combustion which can actually take place there."

Therefore, Mr. Proctor for one comes to the happy and prudent idea after

all "that what had been supposed the most marked characteristic of

incandescent solid and liquid bodies, is thus shown to be a possible

characteristic of the light of the glowing gas."  Thus, the whole basis

of their reasoning having been shaken (by Frankland's objection), they,

the astronomers, may yet arrive at accepting the occult theory, viz.,

that they have to look to the 6th state of matter, for divulging to them

the true nature of their photospheres, chromospheres, appendages,

prominences, projections and horns. Indeed, when one finds one of the

authorities of the age in physical science--Professor Tyndall--saying

that "no earthly substance with which we are acquainted, no

substance which the fall of meteors has landed on the earth--would

be at all competent to maintain the sun's combustion;"  and

again:--".... multiplying all our powers by millions of millions, we do

not reach the sun's expenditure.  And still, notwithstanding this

enormous drain in the lapse of human history, we are unable to detect a

diminution of his store ...."--after reading this, to see the men of

science still maintaining their theory of "a hot globe cooling," one may

be excused for feeling surprised at such inconsistency.  Verily is that

great physicist right in viewing the sun itself as "a speck in infinite

extension--a mere drop in the Universal sea;"  and saying that, "to

Nature nothing can be added;  from Nature nothing can be taken away; the

sum of her energy is constant, and the utmost man can do in the pursuit

of physical truth, or in the applications of physical knowledge, is to

shift the constituents of the never-varying total.  The law of

conservation rigidly excludes both creation and annihilation .... the

flux of power is eternally the same."  Mr. Tyndall speaks here as

though he were an Occultist.  Yet, the memento mori--"the sun is

cooling .... it is dying!" of the Western Trappists of Science resounds

as loud as it ever did.

 

No, we say;  no, while there is one man left on the globe, the sun will

not be extinguished.  Before the hour of the "Solar Pralaya" strikes on

the watch-tower of Eternity, all the other worlds of our system will be

gliding in their spectral shells along the silent paths of Infinite

Space.  Before it strikes, Atlas, the mighty Titan, the son of Asia and

the nursling of Aether, will have dropped his heavy manvantaric burden

and--died; the Pleiades, the bright seven Sisters, will have upon

awakening hiding Sterope to grieve with them--to die themselves for

their father's loss.  And, Hercules, moving off his left leg, will have

to shift his place in heavens and erect his own funeral pile. Then only,

surrounded by the fiery element breaking through the thickening gloom of

the Pralayan twilight, will Hercules, expiring amidst a general

conflagration, bring on likewise the death of our sun:  he will have

unveiled by moving off the "CENTRAL SUN"--the mysterious, the

ever-hidden centre of attraction of our sun and system.  Fables?  Mere

poetical fiction?  Yet, when one knows that the most exact sciences, the

greatest mathematical and astronomical truths went forth into the world

among the hoi polloi from the circle of initiated priests, the

Hierophants of the sanctum sanctorum of the old temples, under the guise

of religious fables, it may not be amiss to search for universal truths

even under the patches of fiction's harlequinade.  This fable about the

Pleiades, the seven Sisters, Atlas, and Hercules exists identical in

subject, though under other names, in the sacred Hindu books, and has

likewise the same occult meaning.  But then like the Ramayana "borrowed

from the Greek Iliad" and the Bhagavat-Gita and Krishna plagiarized from

the Gospel--in the opinion of the great Sanskritist, Prof. Weber, the

Aryans may have also borrowed the Pleiades and their Hercules from the

same source!  When the Brahmins can be shown by the Christian

Orientalists to be the direct descendants of the Teutonic Crusaders,

then only, perchance, will the cycle of proofs be completed, and the

historical truths of the West vindicated!

 

 

 

Question III.--Are the great nations to be swept away in an hour?

 

 

No such absurdity was ever postulated.  The cataclysm that annihilated

the choicest sub-races of the Fourth race, or the Atlanteans, was slowly

preparing its work for ages;  as any one can read in "Esoteric Buddhism"

(page 54).  "Poseidonis," so called, belongs to historical times, though

its fate begins to be realized and suspected only now.  What was said is

still asserted:  every root-race is separated by a catastrophe, a

cataclysm--the basis and historical foundation of the fables woven later

on into the religious fabric of every people, whether civilized or

savage, under the names of "deluges," "showers of fire," and such like.

 

That no "appreciable trace is left of such high civilization" is due to

several reasons.  One of these may be traced chiefly to the inability,

and partially to the unwillingness (or shall we say congenital spiritual

blindness of this our age!) of the modern archeologist to distinguish

between excavations and ruins 50,000 and 4,000 years old, and to assign

to many a grand archaic ruin its proper age and place in prehistoric

times.  For the latter the archeologist is not responsible--for what

criterion, what sign has he to lead him to infer the true date of an

excavated building bearing no inscription;  and what warrant has the

public that the antiquary and specialist has not made an error of some

20,000 years?  A fair proof of this we have in the scientific and

historic labeling of the Cyclopean architecture. Traditional archeology

bearing directly upon the monumental is rejected.  Oral literature,

popular legends, ballads and rites, are all stifled in one word--

superstition;  and popular antiquities have become "fables" and

"folk-lore."  The ruder style of Cyclopean masonry, the walls of Tyrius,

mentioned by Homer, are placed at the farthest end--the dawn of

pre-Roman history;  the walls of Epirus and Mycenae--at the nearest.  The

latter are commonly believed the work of the Pelasgi and probably of

about 1,000 years before the Western era.  As to the former, they were

hedged in and driven forward by the Noachian deluge till very lately--

Archbishop Usher's learned scheme, computing that earth and man "were

created 4,004 B.C.," having been not only popular but actually forced

upon the educated classes until Mr. Darwin's triumphs.  Had it not been

for the efforts of a few Alexandrian and other mystics, Platonists, and

heathen philosophers, Europe would have never laid her hands even on

those few Greek and Roman classics she now possesses.  And, as among the

few that escaped the dire fate not all by any means were trustworthy--

hence, perhaps, the secret of their preservation--Western scholars got

early into the habit of rejecting all heathen testimony, whenever truth

clashed with the dicta of their churches.  Then, again, the modern

Archeologists, Orientalists and Historians, are all Europeans;  and they

are all Christians, whether nominally or otherwise.  However it may be,

most of them seem to dislike to allow any relic of archaism to antedate

the supposed antiquity of the Jewish records.  This is a ditch into

which most have slipped.

 

The traces of ancient civilizations exist, and they are many. Yet, it is

humbly suggested, that so long as there are reverend gentlemen mixed up

unchecked in archaeological and Asiatic societies;  and Christian

bishops to write the supposed histories and religions of non-Christian

nations, and to preside over the meetings of Orientalists--so long will

Archaism and its remains be made subservient in every branch to ancient

Judaism and modern Christianity.

 

So far, archeology knows nothing of the sites of other and far older

civilizations, except the few it has stumbled upon, and to which it has

assigned their respective ages, mostly under the guidance of biblical

chronology.  Whether the West had any right to impose upon Universal

History the untrustworthy chronology of a small and unknown Jewish tribe

and reject, at the same time, every datum as every other tradition

furnished by the classical writers of non-Jewish and non-Christian

nations, is questionable. At any rate, had it accepted as willingly data

coming from other sources, it might have assured itself by this time,

that not only in Italy and other parts of Europe, but even on sites not

very far from those it is accustomed to regard as the hotbed of ancient

relics--Babylonia and Assyria--there are other sites where it could

profitably excavate.  The immense "Salt Valley" of Dasht-Beyad by

Khorasson covers the most ancient civilizations of the world;  while the

Shamo desert has had time to change from sea to land, and from fertile

land to a dead desert, since the day when the first civilization of the

Fifth Race left its now invisible, and perhaps for ever hidden, "traces"

under its beds of sand.

 

Times have changed, are changing.  Proofs of the old civilizations and

the archaic wisdom are accumulating.  Though soldier-bigots and priestly

schemers have burnt books and converted old libraries to base uses;

though the dry rot and the insect have destroyed inestimably precious

records;  though within the historic period the Spanish brigands made

bonfires of the works of the refined archaic American races, which, if

spared, would have solved many a riddle of history;  though Omar lit the

fires of the Alexandrian baths for months with the literary treasures of

the Serapeum;  though the Sybilline and other mystical books of Rome and

Greece were destroyed in war; though the South Indian invaders of Ceylon

"heaped into piles as high as the tops of the cocoanut trees" the ollas

of the Buddhists, and set them ablaze to light their victory--thus

obliterating from the world's knowledge early Buddhist annals and

treatises of great importance:  though this hateful and senseless

Vandalism has disgraced the career of most fighting nations--still,

despite everything, there are extant abundant proofs of the history of

mankind, and bits and scraps come to light from time to time by what

science has often called "most curious coincidences."  Europe has no

very trustworthy history of her own vicissitudes and mutations, her

successive races and their doings.  What with their savage wars, the

barbaric habits of the historic Goths, Huns, Franks, and other warrior

nations, and the interested literary Vandalism of the shaveling priests

who for centuries sat upon its intellectual life like a nightmare, an

antiquity could not exist for Europe.  And, having no Past to record

themselves, the European critics, historians and archeologists have not

scrupled to deny one to others--whenever the concession excited a

sacrifice of biblical prestige.

 

No "traces of old civilizations" we are told!  And what about the

Pelasgi--the direct forefathers of the Hellenes, according to Herodotus?

What about the Etruscans--the race mysterious and wonderful, if any, for

the historian, and whose origin is the most insoluble of problems?  That

which is known of them only shows that could something more be known, a

whole series of prehistoric civilizations might be discovered.  A people

described as are the Pelasgi--a highly intellectual, receptive, active

people, chiefly occupied with agriculture, warlike when necessary,

though preferring peace;  a people who built canals as no one else,

subterranean water-works, dams, walls, and Cyclopean buildings of the

most astounding strength;  who are even suspected of having been the

inventors of the so-called Cadmean or Phoenician writing characters from

which all European alphabets are derived--who were they?  Could they be

shown by any possible means as the descendants of the biblical Peleg

(Gen. x. 25) their high civilization would have been thereby

demonstrated, though their antiquity would still have to be dwarfed to

2247 "B.C.."  And who were the Etruscans?

 

Shall the Easterns like the Westerns be made to believe that between the

high civilizations of the pre-Roman (and we say--prehistoric) Tursenoi

of the Greeks, with their twelve great cities known to history;  their

Cyclopean buildings, their plastic and pictorial arts, and the time when

they were a nomadic tribe "first descended into Italy from their

northern latitudes"--only a few centuries elapsed?  Shall it be still

urged that the Phoenicians with their Tyre 2750 "B.C." (a chronology,

accepted by Western history), their commerce, fleet, learning, arts, and

civilization, were only a few centuries before the building of Tyre but

"a small tribe of Semitic fishermen"?  Or, that the Trojan war could not

have been earlier than 1184 B.C., and thus Magna Graecia must be fixed

somewhere between the eighth and the ninth Century "B.C.," and by no

means thousands of years before, as was claimed by Plato and Aristotle,

Homer and the Cyclic Poems, derived from, and based upon, other records

millenniums older?  If the Christian historian, hampered by his

chronology, and the freethinker by lack of necessary data, feel bound to

stigmatize every non-Christian or non-Western chronology as "obviously

fanciful," "purely mythical," and "not worthy of a moment's

consideration," how shall one, wholly dependent upon Western guides get

at the truth?  And if these incompetent builders of Universal History

can persuade their public to accept as authoritative their chronological

and ethnological reveries, why should the Eastern student, who has

access to quite different--and we make bold to say, more trustworthy--

materials, be expected to join in the blind belief of those who defend

Western historical infallibility?  He believes--on the strength of the

documentary evidence, left by Yavanacharya (Pythagoras) 607 "B.C." in

India, and that of his own national "temple records," that instead of

giving hundreds we may safely give thousands of years to the foundation

of Cumaea and Magna Graecia, of which it was the pioneer settlement.

That the civilization of the latter had already become effete when

Pythagoras, the great pupil of Aryan Masters went to Crotone.  And,

having no biblical bias to overcome, he feels persuaded that, if it took

the Celtic and Gaelic tribes Britannicae Insulae, with the ready-made

civilizations of Rome before their eyes, and acquaintance with that of

the Phoenicians whose trade with them began a thousand years before the

Christian era;  and to crown all with the definite help later of the

Normans and Saxons--two thousand years before they could build their

medieval cities, not even remotely comparable with those of the Romans;

and it took them two thousand five hundred years to get half as

civilized;  then, that instead of that hypothetical period, benevolently

styled the childhood of the race, being within easy reach of the

Apostles and the early Fathers, it must be relegated to an enormously

earlier time.  Surely if it took the barbarians of Western Europe so

many centuries to develop a language and create empires, then the

nomadic tribes of the "mythical" periods ought in common fairness--since

they never came under the fructifying energy of that Christian influence

to which we are asked to ascribe all the scientific enlightenment of

this age--about ten thousand years to build their Tyres and their Veii,

their Sidons and Carthagenes. As other Troys lie under the surface of

the topmost one in the Troad;  and other and higher civilizations were

exhumed by Mariette Bey under the stratum of sand from which the

archeological collections of Lepsius, Abbott, and the British Museum

were taken;  and six Hindu "Delhis," superposed and hidden away out of

sight, formed the pedestal upon which the Mogul conqueror built the

gorgeous capital whose ruins still attest the splendour of his Delhi;

so when the fury of critical bigotry has quite subsided, and Western men

are prepared to write history in the interest of truth alone, will the

proofs be found of the cyclic law of civilization.  Modern Florence

lifts her beautiful form above the tomb of Etruscan Florentia, which in

her turn rose upon the hidden vestiges of anterior towns.  And so also

Arezzo, Perugia, Lucca, and many other European sites now occupied by

modern towns and cities, are based upon the relics of archaic

civilizations whose period covers ages incomputable, and whose names

Echo has forgotten to even whisper through "the corridors of Time."

 

When the Western historian has finally and Unanswerably proven who were

the Pelasgi, at least, and who the Etruscans, and the as mysterious

Iapygians, who seem also to have had an earlier acquaintance with

writing--as proved by their inscriptions--than the Phoenicians, then

only may he menace the Asiatic into acceptance of his own arbitrary data

and dogmas.  Then also may he tauntingly ask "how it is that no

appreciable trace is left of such high civilizations as are described in

the Past?"

 

"Is it supposed that the present European civilization with its

offshoots .... can be destroyed by any inundation or conflagration?"

More easily than was many another civilization. Europe has neither the

titanic and Cyclopean masonry of the ancients, nor even its parchments,

to preserve the records of its "existing arts and languages."  Its

civilization is too recent, too rapidly growing, to leave any positively

indestructible relics of either its architecture, arts or sciences.

What is there in the whole Europe that could be regarded as even

approximately indestructible, without mentioning the debacle of the

geological upheaval that follows generally such cataclysms? Is it its

ephemeral Crystal Palaces, its theatres, railways, modern fragile

furniture:  or its electric telegraphs, phonographs, telephones, and

micrographs?  While each of the former is at the mercy of fire and

cyclone, the last enumerated marvels of modern science can be destroyed

by a child breaking them to atoms.  When we know of the destruction of

the "Seven World's Wonders," of Thebes, Tyre, the Labyrinth, and the

Egyptian pyramids and temples and giant palaces, as we now see slowly

crumbling into the dust of the deserts, being reduced to atoms by the

hand of Time--lighter and far more merciful than any cataclysm--the

question seems to us rather the outcome of modern pride than of stern

reasoning.  Is it your daily newspapers and periodicals, rags of a few

days;  your fragile books bearing the records of all your grand

civilization, withal liable to become annihilated after a few meals are

made on them by the white ants, that are regarded as invulnerable?  And

why should European civilization escape the common lot?  It is from the

lower classes, the units of the great masses who form the majorities in

nations, that survivors will escape in greater numbers;  and these know

nothing of the arts, sciences, or languages except their own, and those

very imperfectly.  The arts and sciences are like the phoenix of old:

they die but to revive.  And when the question found on page 58 of

"Esoteric Buddhism" concerning "the curious rush of human progress

within the last two thousand years," was first propounded, Mr. Sinnett's

correspondent might have made his answer more complete by saying:  "This

rush, this progress, and the abnormal rapidity with which one discovery

follows the other, ought to be a sign to human intuition that what you

look upon in the light of 'discoveries' are merely rediscoveries, which,

following the law of gradual progress, you make more perfect, yet in

enunciating, you are not the first to explain them."  We learn more

easily that which we have heard about, or learnt in childhood.  If, as

averred, the Western nations have separated themselves from the great

Aryan stock, it becomes evident that the races that first peopled Europe

were inferior to the root-race which had the Vedas and the pre-historic

Rishis.  That which your far-distant forefathers had heard in the

secrecy of the temples was not lost. It reached their posterity, which

is now simply improving upon details.

 

 

 

Question IV.--Is the Moon immersed in matter?

 

 

No "Adept," so far as the writers know, has ever given to "Lay Chela"

his "views of the moon," for publication.  With Selenography, modern

science is far better acquainted than any humble Asiatic ascetic may

ever hope to become.  It is to be feared the speculations on pp. 104 and

105 of "Esoteric Buddhism," besides being hazy, are somewhat premature.

Therefore, it may be as well to pass on to--

 

 

 

Question V.--About the mineral monad.

 

 

Any English expression that correctly translates the idea given is

"authorized by the Adepts."  Why not?  The term "monad" applies to the

latent life in the mineral as much as it does to the life in the

vegetable and the animal.  The monogenist may take exception to the term

and especially to the idea while the polygenist, unless he be a

corporealist, may not.  As to the other class of scientists, they would

take objection to the idea even of a human monad, and call it

"unscientific."  What relation does the monad bear to the atom?  None

whatever to the atom or molecule as in the scientific conception at

present.  It can neither be compared with the microscopic organism

classed once among polygastric infusoria, and now regarded as vegetable

and ranked among algae;  nor is it quite the monas of the Peripatetics.

Physically or constitutionally the mineral monad differs, of course,

from that of the human monad, which is neither physical, nor can its

constitution be rendered by chemical symbols and elements.  In short,

the mineral monad is one--the higher animal and human monads are

countless. Otherwise, how could one account for and explain

mathematically the evolutionary and spiral progress of the four

kingdoms?  The "monad" is the combination of the last two Principles in

man, the 6th and the 7th, and, properly speaking, the term "human monad"

applies only to the Spiritual Soul, not to its highest spiritual

vivifying Principle.  But since divorced from the latter the Spiritual

Soul could have no existence, no being, it has thus been called.  The

composition (if such a word, which would shock an Asiatic, seems

necessary to help European conception) of Buddhi or the 6th principle is

made up of the essence of what you would call matter (or perchance a

centre of Spiritual Force) in its 6th and 7th condition or state;  the

animating ATMAN being part of the ONE LIFE or Parabrahm.  Now the

Monadic Essence (if such a term be permitted) in the mineral, vegetable

and animal, though the same throughout the series of cycles from the

lowest elemental up to the Deva kingdom, yet differs in the scale of

progression.

 

It would be very misleading to imagine a monad as a separate entity

trailing its slow way in a distinct path through the lower kingdoms, and

after an incalculable series of transmigrations flowering into a human

being;  in short, that the monad of a Humboldt dates back to the monad

of an atom of hornblende. Instead of saying a mineral monad, the

correcter phraseology in physical science which differentiates every

atom, would of course have been to call it the Monad manifesting in that

form of Prakriti called the mineral kingdom.  Each atom or molecule of

ordinary scientific hypotheses is not a particle of something, animated

by a psychic something, destined to blossom as a man after aeons.  But

it is a concrete manifestation of the Universal Energy which itself has

not yet become individualized:  a sequential manifestation of the one

Universal Monas.  The ocean does not divide into its potential and

constituent drops until the sweep of the life-impulse reaches the

evolutionary stage of man-birth.  The tendency towards segregation into

individual monads is gradual, and in the higher animals comes almost to

the point.  The Peripatetics applied the word Monas to the whole Cosmos,

in the pantheistic sense;  and the Occultists while accepting this

thought for convenience' sake, distinguish the progressive stages of the

evolution of the Concrete from the Abstract by terms of which the

"Mineral Monad" is one.  The term merely means that the tidal wave of

spiritual evolution is passing through that arc of its circuit.  The

"Monadic Essence" begins to imperceptibly differentiate in the vegetable

kingdom. As the monads are uncompounded things, as correctly defined by

Leibnitz, it is the spiritual essence which vivifies them in their

degrees of differentiation which constitutes properly the monad--not the

atomic aggregation which is only the vehicle and the substance through

which thrill the lower and higher degrees of intelligence.

 

And though, as shown by those plants that are known as sensitives, there

are a few among them that may be regarded as possessing that conscious

perception which is called by Leibnitz apperception, while the rest are

endowed but with that internal activity which may be called vegetable

nerve-sensation (to call it perception would be wrong), yet even the

vegetable monad is still the Monad in its second degree of awakening

sensation. Leibnitz came several times very near the truth, but defined

the monadic evolution incorrectly and often greatly blundered.  There

are seven kingdoms.  The first group comprises three degrees of

elementals, or nascent centres of forces--from the first stage of the

differentiation of Mulaprakriti to its third degree--i.e., from full

unconsciousness to semi-perception;  the second or higher group embraces

the kingdoms from vegetable to man;  the mineral kingdom thus forming

the central or turning-point in the degrees of the "Monadic Essence"--

considered as an Evoluting Energy.  Three stages in the elemental side;

the mineral kingdom;  three stages in the objective physical side--these

are the seven links of the evolutionary chain.  A descent of spirit into

matter, equivalent to an ascent in physical evolution;  a re-ascent from

the deepest depths of materiality (the mineral) towards its status quo

ante, with a corresponding dissipation of concrete organisms up to

Nirvana--the vanishing point of differentiated matter.  Perhaps a simple

diagram will aid us:--

 

[[Diagram here]]

 

The line A D represents the gradual obscuration of spirit as it passes

into concrete matter;  the point D indicates the evolutionary position

of the mineral kingdom from its incipient (d) to its ultimate concretion

(a);  c, b, a, on the left-hand side of the figure, are the three stages

of elemental evolution; i.e., the three successive stages passed by the

spiritual impulse (through the elementals--of which little is permitted

to be said) before they are imprisoned in the most concrete form of

matter; and a, b, c, on the right-hand side, are the three stages of

organic life, vegetable, animal, human.  What is total obscuration of

spirit is complete perfection of its polar antithesis--matter;  and this

idea is conveyed in the lines A D and D A.  The arrows show the line of

travel of the evolutionary impulse in entering its vortex and expanding

again into the subjectivity of the ABSOLUTE. The central thickest line,

d d, is the Mineral Kingdom.

 

The monogenists have had their day.  Even believers in a personal god,

like Professor Agassiz, teach now that, "There is a manifest progress in

the succession of beings on the surface of the earth. The progress

consists in an increasing similarity of the living fauna, and among the

vertebrates especially, in the increasing resemblance to man.  Man is

the end towards which all the animal creation has tended from the first

appearance of the first Palaeozoic fishes" ("Principles of Zoology," pp.

205-6).  The mineral "monad" is not an individuality latent, but an

all-pervading Force which has for its Present vehicle matter in its

lowest and most concrete terrestrial state;  in man the monad is fully

developed, potential, and either passive or absolutely active, according

to its vehicle, the five lower and more physical human principles.  In

the Deva kingdom it is fully liberated and in its highest state--but one

degree lower than the ONE Universal Life.*

 

----------

* The above diagram represents a logical section of the scheme of

evolution, and not the evolutionary history of a unit of consciousness.

----------

 

 

 

Question VIII.--Sri Sankaracharya's Date

 

 

It is always difficult to determine with precision the date of any

particular event in the ancient history of India;  and this difficulty

is considerably enhanced by the speculations of European Orientalists,

whose labours in this direction have but tended to thicken the confusion

already existing in popular legends and traditions, which were often

altered or modified to suit the necessities of sectarian controversy.

The causes that have produced this result will be fully ascertained on

examining the assumptions on which these speculations are based.  The

writings of many of these Orientalists are often characterized by an

imperfect knowledge of Indian literature, philosophy and religion, and

of Hindu traditions, and a contemptuous disregard for the opinions of

Hindu writers and pundits.  Very often, facts and dates are taken by

these writers from the writings of their predecessors or contemporaries

on the assumption that they are correct without any further

investigation by themselves.  Even when a writer gives a date with an

expression of doubt as to its accuracy, his follower frequently quotes

the same date as if it were absolutely correct.  One wrong date is made

to depend upon another wrong date, and one bad inference is often

deduced from another inference equally unwarranted and illogical.  And

consequently, if the correctness of any particular date given by these

writers is to be ascertained, the whole structure of Indian Chronology

constructed by them will have to be carefully examined.  It will be

convenient to enumerate some of the assumptions above referred to before

proceeding to examine their opinions concerning the date of

Sankaracharya.

 

I. Many of these writers are not altogether free from the prejudices

engendered by the pernicious doctrine, deduced from the Bible, whether

rightly or wrongly, that this world is only six thousand years old.  We

do not mean to say that any one of these writers would now seriously

think of defending the said doctrine.  Nevertheless, it had exercised a

considerable influence on the minds of Christian writers when they began

to investigate the claims of Asiatic Chronology.  If an antiquity of

five or six thousand years is assigned to any particular event connected

with the ancient history of Egypt, India or China, it is certain to be

rejected at once by these writers without any inquiry whatever regarding

the truth of the statement.

 

II. They are extremely unwilling to admit that any portion of the Veda

can be traced to a period anterior to the date of the Pentateuch, even

when the arguments brought forward to establish the priority of the

Vedas are such as would be convincing to the mind of an impartial

investigator untainted by Christian prejudices.  The maximum limit of

Indian antiquity is, therefore, fixed for them by the Old Testament;

and it is virtually assumed by them that a period between the date of

the Old Testament on the one side, and the present time on the other,

should necessarily be assigned to every book in the whole range of Vedic

and Sanskrit literature, and to almost every event of Indian history.

 

III. It is often assumed without reason that every passage in the Vedas

containing philosophical or metaphysical ideas must be looked upon as a

subsequent interpolation, and that every book treating of a

philosophical subject must be considered as having been written after

the time of Buddha or after the commencement of the Christian era.

Civilization, philosophy and scientific investigation had their origin,

in the opinion of these writers, within the six or seven centuries

preceding the Christian era, and mankind slowly emerged, for the first

time, from "the depths of animal brutality" within the last four or five

thousand years.

 

IV. It is also assumed that Buddhism was brought into existence by

Gautama Buddha.  The previous existence of Buddhism, Jainism and Arhat

philosophy is rejected as an absurd and ridiculous invention of the

Buddhists and others, who attempted thereby to assign a very high

antiquity to their own religion.  In consequence of this erroneous

impression every Hindu book referring to the doctrines of Buddhists is

declared to have been written subsequent to the time of Gautama Buddha.

For instance, Mr. Weber is of opinion that Vyasa, the author of the

Brahma Sutras, wrote them in the fifth century after Christ.  This is

indeed a startling revelation to the majority of Hindus.

 

V. Whenever several works treating of various subjects are attributed to

one and the same author by Hindu writings or traditions, it is often

assumed, and apparently without any reason whatever in the majority of

cases, that the said works should be considered as the productions of

different writers.  By this process of reasoning they have discovered

two Badarayanas (Vyasas), two Patanjalis, and three Vararuchis.  We do

not mean to say that in every case identity of name is equivalent to

identity of personality.  But we cannot but protest against such

assumptions when they are made without any evidence to support them,

merely for the purpose of supporting a foregone conclusion or

establishing a favourite hypothesis.

 

VI. An attempt is often made by these writers to establish the

chronological order of the events of ancient Indian history by means of

the various stages in the growth or development of the Sanskrit language

and Indian literature.  The time required for this growth is often

estimated in the same manner in which a geologist endeavours to fix the

time required for the gradual development of the various strata

composing the earth's crust. But we fail to perceive anything like a

proper method in making these calculations.  It will be wrong to assume

that the growth of one language will require the same time as that of

another within the same limits.  The peculiar characteristics of the

nation to whom the language belongs must be carefully taken into

consideration in attempting to make any such calculation.  The history

of the said nation is equally important.  Any one who examines Max

Muller's estimate of the so-called Sutra, Brahmana, Mantra and Khanda

periods, will be able to perceive that no attention has been paid to

these considerations.  The time allotted to the growth of these four

"strata" of Vedic literature is purely arbitrary.

 

We have enumerated these defects in the writings of European

Orientalists for the purpose of showing to our readers that it is not

always safe to rely upon the conclusions arrived at by these writers

regarding the dates of ancient Indian history.

 

In examining the various quotations and traditions selected by European

Orientalists for the purpose of fixing Sankaracharya's date, special

care must be taken to see whether the person referred to was the very

first Sankaracharya who established the Adwaitee doctrine, or one of his

followers who became the Adhipathis (heads) of the various Mathams

(temples) established by him and his successors.  Many of the Adwaitee

Mathadhipatis who succeeded him (especially of the Sringeri Matham) were

men of considerable renown and were well known throughout India during

their time.  They are often referred to under the general name of

Sankaracharya.  Consequently, any reference made to any one of these

Mathadhipatis is apt to be mistaken for a reference to the first

Sankaracharya himself.

 

Mr. Barth, whose opinion regarding Sankara's date is quoted by "An

English F.T.S." against the date assigned to that teacher in Mr.

Sinnett's book on Esoteric Buddhism, does not appear to have carefully

examined the subject himself.  He assigns no reasons for the date given,

and does not even allude to the existence of other authorities and

traditions which conflict with the date adopted by him.  The date which

he assigns to Sankara appears in an unimportant foot-note on page 89 of

his book on "The Religions of India," which reads thus:  "Sankaracharya

is generally placed in the eighth century;  perhaps we must accept the

ninth rather. The best accredited tradition represents him as born on

the 10th of the month 'Madhava' in 788 A.D.  Other traditions, it is

true, place him in the second and fifth centuries.  The author of the

Dabistan, on the other hand, brings him as far down as the commencement

of the fourteenth."  Mr. Barth is clearly wrong in saying that Sankara

is generally placed in the eight century. There are as many traditions

for placing him in some century before the Christian era as for placing

him in some century after the said era, and it will also be seen from

what follows that in fact evidence preponderates in favour of the former

statement. It cannot be contended that the generality of Orientalists

have any definite opinions of their own on the subject under

consideration.  Max Muller does not appear to have ever directed his

attention to this subject.  Monier Williams merely copies the date given

by Mr. Wilson, and Mr. Weber seems to rely upon the same authority

without troubling himself with any further inquiry about the matter.

Mr. Wilson is probably the only Orientalist who investigated the subject

with some care and attention;  and he frankly confesses that the exact

period at which "he (Sankara) flourished can by no means be determined"

(p. 201 of vol. I. of his "Essays on the Religion of the Hindoos").

Under such circumstances the foot-note above quoted is certainly very

misleading.  Mr. Barth does not inform his readers where he obtained the

tradition referred to, and what reasons he has for supposing that it

refers to the first Sankaracharya, and that it is "the best accredited

tradition."  When the matter is still open to discussion, Mr. Barth

should not have adopted any particular date if he is not prepared to

support it and establish it by proper arguments.  The other traditions

alluded to are not intended, of course, to strengthen the authority of

the tradition relied upon.  But the wording of the foot-note in question

seems to show that all the authorities and traditions relating to the

subject are comprised therein, when in fact the most important of them

are left out of consideration, as will be shown hereafter. No arguments

are to be found in support of the date assigned to Sankara in the other

portions of Mr. Barth's book, but there are a few isolated passages

which may be taken either as inferences from the statement in question

or arguments in its support, which it will be necessary to examine in

this connection.

 

Mr. Barth has discovered some connection between the appearance of

Sankara in India and the commencement of the persecution of the

Buddhists, which he seems to place in the seventh and eighth centuries.

In page 89 of his book he speaks of "the great reaction on the offensive

against Buddhism which was begun in the Deccan in the seventh and eighth

centuries by the schools of Kumarila and Sankara;"  and in page 135 he

states that the "disciples of Kumarila and Sankara, organized into

military bands, constituted themselves the rabid defenders of

orthodoxy." The force of these statements is, however, considerably

weakened by the author's observations on pages 89 and 134, regarding the

absence of any traces of Buddhist persecution by Sankara in the

authentic documents hitherto examined, and the absurdity of legends

which represent him as exterminating Buddhists from the Himalaya to Cape

Comorin.

 

The association of Sankara with Kumarila in the passages above cited is

highly ridiculous.  It is well known to almost every Hindu that the

followers of Purva Mimamsa (Kumarila commented on the Sutras) were the

greatest and the bitterest opponents of Sankara and his doctrine, and

Mr. Barth seems to be altogether ignorant of the nature of Kumarila's

views and Purva Mimamsa, and the scope and aim of Sankara's Vedantic

philosophy.  It is impossible to say what evidence the author has for

asserting that the great reaction against the Buddhists commenced in the

seventh and eighth centuries, and that Sankara was instrumental in

originating it.  There are some passages in his book which tend to show

that this date cannot be considered as quite correct.  In page 135 he

says that Buddhist persecution began even in the time of Asoka.

 

Such being the case, it is indeed very surprising that the orthodox

Hindus should have kept quiet for nearly ten centuries without

retaliating on their enemies.  The political ascendency gained by the

Buddhists during the reign of Asoka did not last very long;  and the

Hindus had the support of very powerful kings before and after the

commencement of the Christian era. Moreover, the author says, in p. 132

of his book, that Buddhism was in a state of decay in the seventh

century.  It is hardly to be expected that the reaction against the

Buddhists would commence when their religion was already in a state of

decay.  No great religious teacher or reformer would waste his time and

energy in demolishing a religion already in ruins.  But what evidence is

there to show that Sankara was ever engaged in this task?  If the main

object of his preaching was to evoke a reaction against Buddhism, he

would no doubt have left us some writings specially intended to

criticize its doctrines and expose its defects.  On the other hand, he

does not even allude to Buddhism in his independent works.

 

Though he was a voluminous writer, with the exception of a few remarks

on the theory advocated by some Buddhists regarding the nature of

perception, contained in his Commentary on the Brahma-Sutras, there is

not a single passage in the whole range of his writings regarding the

Buddhists or their doctrines;  and the insertion of even these few

remarks in his Commentary was rendered necessary by the allusions

contained in the Sutras which he was interpreting.  As, in our humble

opinion, these Brahma-Sutras were composed by Vyasa himself (and not by

an imaginary Vyasa of the fifth century after Christ, evolved by Mr.

Weber's fancy), the allusions therein contained relate to the Buddhism

which existed to the date of Gautama Buddha.  From these few remarks it

will be clear to our readers that Sankaracharya had nothing to do with

Buddhist persecution.  We may here quote a few passages from Mr.

Wilson's Preface to the first edition of his Sanskrit Dictionary in

support of our remarks.  He writes as follows regarding Sankara's

connection with the persecution of the Buddhists:--"Although the popular

belief attributes the origin of the Bauddha persecution to

Sankaracharya, yet in this case we have some reason to distrust its

accuracy.  Opposed to it we have the mild character of the reformer, who

is described as uniformly gentle and tolerant;  and, speaking from my

own limited reading in Vedanta works, and the more satisfactory

testimony of Ram Mohun Roy, which he permits me to adduce, it does not

appear that any traces of his being instrumental to any persecution are

to be found in his own writings, all which are extant, and the object of

which is by no means the correction of the Bauddha or any other schism,

but the refutation of all other doctrines besides his own, and the

reformation or re-establishment of the fourth religious order."  Further

on he observes that "it is a popular error to ascribe to him the work of

persecution;  he does not appear at all occupied in that odious task,

nor is he engaged in particular controversy with any of the Bauddhas."

 

From the foregoing observations it will be seen that Sankara's date

cannot be determined by the time of the commencement of the Buddhist

persecution, even if it were possible to ascertain the said period.

 

Mr. Barth seems to have discovered some connection between the

philosophical systems of Sankara, Ramanuja and Anandathirtha, and the

Arabian merchants who came to India in the first centuries of the

Hejira, and he is no doubt fully entitled to any credit that may be

given him for the originality of his discovery.  This mysterious and

occult connection between Adwaita philosophy and Arabian commerce is

pointed out in p. 212 of his book, and it may have some bearing on the

present question, if it is anything more than a figment of his fancy.

The only reason given by him in support of his theory is, however, in my

humble opinion, worthless.  The Hindus had a Prominent example of a

grand religious movement under the guidance of a single teacher in the

life of Buddha, and it was not necessary for them to imitate the

adventures of the Arabian prophet.  There is but one other passage in

Mr. Barth's book which has some reference to Sankara's date.  In page

207 he writes as follows:--"The Siva, for instance, who is invoked at

the commencement of the drama of Sakuntala, who is at once God, priest

and offering, and whose body is the universe, is a Vedantic idea.  This

testimony appears to be forgotten when it is maintained, as is sometimes

done, that the whole sectarian Vedantism commences with Sankara."  But

this testimony appears to be equally forgotten when it is maintained, as

is sometimes done by Orientalists like Mr. Barth, that Sankara lived in

some century after the author of Sakuntala.

 

From the foregoing remarks it will be apparent that Mr. Barth's opinion

regarding Sankara's date is very unsatisfactory.  As Mr. Wilson seems to

have examined the subject with some care and attention, we must now

advert to his opinion and see how far it is based on proper evidence.

In attempting to fix Amara Sinha's date (which attempt ultimately ended

in a miserable failure), he had to ascertain the period when Sankara

lived.  Consequently his remarks concerning the said period appear in

his preface to the first edition of his Sanskrit Dictionary.  We shall

now reproduce here such passages from this preface as are connected with

the subject under consideration and comment upon them.  Mr. Wilson

writes as follows:--

 

"The birth of Sankara presents the same discordance as every other

remarkable incident amongst the Hindus.  The Kadali (it ought to be

Koodali) Brahmins, who form an establishment following and teaching his

system, assert his appearance about 2,000 years since;  some accounts

place him about the beginning of the Christian era, others in the third

or fourth century after;  a manuscript history of the kings of Konga, in

Colonel Mackenzie's Collection, makes him contemporary with Tiru Vikrama

Deva Chakravarti, sovereign of Skandapura in the Dekkan, AD. 178; at

Sringeri, on the edge of the Western Ghauts, and now in the Mysore

Territory, at which place he is said to have founded a College that

still exists, and assumes the supreme control of the Smarta Brahmins of

the Peninsula, an antiquity of 1,600 years is attributed to him, and

common tradition makes him about 1,200 years old.  The Bhoja Prabandha

enumerates Sankara among its worthies, and as contemporary with that

prince;  his antiquity will then be between eight and nine centuries.

The followers of Madhwacharya in Tuluva seem to have attempted to

reconcile these contradictory accounts by supposing him to have been

born three times;  first at Sivuli in Tuluva about 1,500 years ago,

again in Malabar some centuries later, and finally at Padukachaytra in

Tuluva, no more than 600 years since;  the latter assertion being

intended evidently to do honour to their own founder, whose date that

was, by enabling him to triumph over Sankara in a supposititious

controversy.  The Vaishnava Brahmins of Madura say that Sankara appeared

in the ninth century of Salivahana, or tenth of our era.  Dr. Taylor

thinks that, if we allow him about 900 years, we shall not be far from

the truth, and Mr. Colebroke is inclined to give him an antiquity of

about 1,000 years.  This last is the age which my friend Ram Mohun Roy,

a diligent student of Sankara's works, and philosophical teacher of his

doctrines, is disposed to concur in, and he infers that 'from a

calculation of the spiritual generations of the followers of Sankara

Swami from his time up to this date, he seems to have lived between the

seventh and eighth centuries of the Christian era,' a distance of time

agreeing with the statements made to Dr. Buchanan in his journey through

Sankara's native country, Malabar, and in union with the assertion of

the Kerala Utpatti, a work giving art historical and statistical account

of the same province, and which, according to Mr. Duncan's citation of

it, mentions the regulations of the castes of Malabar by this

philosopher to have been effected about 1,000 years before 1798.  At the

same time, it must be observed, that a manuscript translation of the

same work in Colonel Mackenzie's possession, states Sankaracharya to

have been born about the middle of the fifth century, or between

thirteen or fourteen hundred years ago, differing in this respect from

Mr. Duncan's statement--a difference of the less importance, as the

manuscript in question, either from defects in the original or

translation, presents many palpable errors, and cannot consequently be

depended upon.  The weight of authority therefore is altogether in

favour of an antiquity of about ten centuries, and I am disposed to

adopt this estimate of Sankara's date, and to place him in the end of

the eighth and beginning of the ninth century of the Christian era."

 

We will add a few more authorities to Mr. Wilson's list before

proceeding to comment on the foregoing passage.

 

In a work called "The Biographical Sketches of Eminent Hindu Authors,"

published at Bombay in 1860 by Janardan Ramchenderjee, it is stated that

Sankara lived 2,500 years ago, and that, in the opinion of some people,

2,200 years ago.  The records of the Combaconum Matham give a list of

nearly 66 Mathadhipatis from Sankara down to the present time, and show

that he lived more than 2,000 years ago.

 

The Kudali Matham referred to by Mr. Wilson, which is a branch of the

Sringeri Matham, gives the same date as the latter Matham, their

traditions being identical.  Their calculation can safely be relied upon

as far as it is supported by the dates given on the places of Samadhi

(something like a tomb) of the successive Gurus of the Sringeri Matham;

and it leads us to the commencement of the Christian era.

 

No definite information is given by Mr. Wilson regarding the nature,

origin, or reliability of the accounts which place Sankara in the third

or fourth century of the Christian era or at its commencement;  nor does

it clearly appear that the history of the kings of Konga referred to

unmistakably alludes to the very first Sancharacharya.  These traditions

are evidently opposed to the conclusion arrived at by Mr. Wilson, and it

does not appear on what grounds their testimony is discredited by him.

Mr. Wilson is clearly wrong in stating that an antiquity of 1,600 years

is attributed to Sankara by the Sringeri Matham.  We have already

referred to the account of the Sringeri Matham, and it is precisely

similar to the account given by the Kudali Brahmins. We have ascertained

that it is so from the agent of the Sringeri Matham at Madras, who has

recently published the list of teachers preserved at the said Matham

with the dates assigned to them. And further, we are unable to see which

"common tradition" makes Sankara "about 1,200 years old."  As far as our

knowledge goes there is no such common tradition in India.  The majority

of people in Southern India have, up to this time, been relying on the

Sringeri account, and in Northern India there seems to be no common

tradition.  We have but a mass of contradictory accounts.

 

It is indeed surprising that an Orientalist of Mr. Wilson's pretensions

should confound the poet named Sankara and mentioned in Bhoja Prabandha

with the great Adwaitee teacher.  No Hindu would ever commit such a

ridiculous mistake.  We are astonished to find some of these European

Orientalists quoting now and then some of the statements contained in

such books as Bhoja Prabandha, Katha Sarit Sagara, Raja-tarangini and

Panchatantra, as if they were historical works.  In some other part of

his preface Mr. Wilson himself says that this Bhoja Prabandha is

altogether untrustworthy, as some of the statements contained therein

did not harmonize with his theory about Amarasimha's date;  but now he

misquotes its statements for the purpose of supporting his conclusion

regarding Sankara's date.  Surely, consistency is not one of the

prominent characteristics of the writings of the majority of European

Orientalists.  The person mentioned in Bhoja Prabandha is always spoken

of under the name of Sankara Kavi (poet), and he is nowhere called

Sankaracharya (teacher), and the Adwaitee teacher is never mentioned in

any Hindu work under the appellation of Sankara Kavi.

 

It is unnecessary for us to say anything about the Madhwa traditions or

the opinion of the Vaishnava Brahmins of Madurah regarding Sankara's

date.  It is, in our humble opinion, hopeless to expect anything but

falsehood regarding Sankara's history and his philosophy from the

Madhwas and the Vaishnavas.  They are always very anxious to show to the

world at large that their doctrines existed before the time of Sankara,

and that the Adwaitee doctrine was a deviation from their preexisting

orthodox Hinduism.  And consequently they have assigned to him an

antiquity of less than 1,500 years.

 

It does not appear why Dr. Taylor thinks that he can allow Sankara about

900 years, or on what grounds Mr. Colebrooke is inclined to give him an

antiquity of about 1,000 years.  No reliance can be placed on such

statements before the reasons assigned therefore are thoroughly sifted.

 

Fortunately, Mr. Wilson gives us the reason for Ram Mohun Roy's opinion.

We are inclined to believe that Ram Mohun Roy's calculation was made

with reference to the Sringeri list of Teachers or Gurus, as that was

the only list published up to this time;  and as no other Matham, except

perhaps the Cumbaconum Matham, has a list of Gurus coming up to the

present time in uninterrupted succession.  There is no necessity for

depending upon his calculation (which from its very nature cannot be

anything more than mere guesswork) when the old list preserved at

Sringeri contains the dates assigned to the various teachers.  As these

dates have not been published up to the present time, and as Ram Mohun

Roy had merely a string of names before him, he was obliged to ascertain

Sankara's date by assigning a certain number of years on the average to

every teacher.  Consequently, his opinion is of no importance whatever

when we have the statement of the Sringeri Matham which, as we have

already said, places Sankara some centuries before the Christian era.

The same remarks will apply to the calculation in question even if it

were made on the basis of the number of teachers contained in the list

preserved in the Cumbaconum Matham.

 

Very little importance can be attached to the oral evidence adduced by

some unknown persons before Dr. Buchanan in his travels through Malabar;

and we have only to consider the inferences that may be drawn from the

accounts contained in Kerala Utpatti.  The various manuscript copies of

this work seem to differ in the date they assign to Sankaracharya;  even

if the ease were otherwise, we cannot place any reliance upon this work,

for the following among other reasons:--

 

I. It is a well-known fact that the customs of Malabar are very

peculiar.  Their defenders have been, consequently, pointing to some

great Rishi or some great philosopher of ancient India as their

legislator.  Some of them affirm (probably the majority) that Parasurama

brought into existence some of these customs and left a special Smriti

for the guidance of the people of Malabar; others say that it was

Sankaracharya who sanctioned these peculiar customs.  It is not very

difficult to perceive why these two persons were selected by them.

According to the Hindu Puranas, Parasurama lived in Malabar for some

time, and according to Hindu traditions Sankara was born in that

country.  But it is extremely doubtful whether either of them had

anything to do with the peculiar customs of the said country.  There is

no allusion whatever to any of these customs in Sankara's works.  He

seems to have devoted his whole attention to religious reform, and it is

very improbable that he should have ever directed his attention to the

local customs of Malabar.  While attempting to revive the philosophy of

the ancient Rishis, it is not likely that he should have sanctioned the

customs of Malabar, which are at variance with the rules laid down in

the Smritis of those very Rishis; and as far as our knowledge goes, he

left no written regulations regarding to the castes of Malabar.

 

II. The statements contained in Kerala Utpatti are opposed to the

account of Sankara's life given in almost all the Sankara Vijayams

(Biographies of Sankara) examined up to this time--viz., Vidyaranya's

Sankara Vijayam, Chitsukhachary's Sankara Vijayavilasam, Brihat Sankara

Vijayam, &c.  According to the account contained in these works, Sankara

left Malabar in his eighth year, and returned to his native village when

his mother was on her death-bed, and on that occasion he remained there

only for a few days.  It is difficult to see at what period of his

lifetime he was engaged in making regulations for the castes of Malabar.

 

III. The work under consideration represents Malabar as the seat of

Bhattapada's triumphs over the Buddhists, and says that this teacher

established himself in Malabar and expelled the Buddhists from that

country.  This statement alone will be sufficient to show to our readers

the fictitious character of the account contained in this book.

According to every other Hindu work, this great teacher of Purva Mimamsa

was born in Northern India; almost all his famous disciples and

followers were living in that part of the country, and according to

Vidyaranya's account he died at Allahabad.

 

For the foregoing reasons we cannot place any reliance upon this account

of Malabar.

 

From an examination of the traditions and other accounts referred to

above, Mr. Wilson comes to the conclusion that Sankaracharya lived in

the end of the eighth and the beginning of the ninth century of the

Christian era.  The accounts of the Sringeri, Kudali and Cumbaconum

Mathams, and the traditions current in the Bombay Presidency, as shown

in the biographical sketches published at Bombay, place Sankara in some

century before the Christian era.  On the other hand, Kerala Utpatti,

the information obtained by Dr. Buchanan in his travels through Malabar,

and the opinions expressed by Dr. Taylor and Mr. Colebrooke, concur in

assigning to him an antiquity of about 1,000 years.  The remaining

traditions referred to by Mr. Wilson are as much opposed to his opinion

as to the conclusion that Sankara lived before Christ.  We shall now

leave it to our readers to say whether, under such circumstances, Mr.

Wilson is justified in asserting that "the weight of authority is

altogether in favour" of his theory.

 

We have already referred to the writings of almost all the European

Orientalists who expressed an opinion upon the subject under discussion;

and we need hardly say that Sankara's date is yet to be ascertained.

 

We are obliged to comment at length on the opinions of European

Orientalists regarding Sankara's date, as there will be no probability

of any attention being paid to the opinion of Indian and Tibetan

initiates when it is generally believed that the question has been

finally settled by European Sanskritists.  The Adepts referred to by "An

English F.T.S." are certainly in a position to clear up some of the

problems in Indian religious history.  But there is very little chance

of their opinions being accepted by the general public under present

circumstances, unless they are supported by such evidence as is within

the reach of the outside world.  As it is not always possible to procure

such evidence, there is very little use in publishing the information

which is in their possession until the public are willing to recognize

and admit the antiquity and trustworthiness of their traditions, the

extent of their powers, and the vastness of their knowledge.  In the

absence of such proof as is above indicated, there is every likelihood

of their opinions being rejected as absurd and untenable;  their motives

will no doubt be questioned, and some people may be tempted to deny even

the fact of their existence.  It is often asked by Hindus as well as by

English men why these Adepts are so very unwilling to publish some

portion at least of the information they possess regarding the truths of

physical science.  But, in doing so, they do not seem to perceive the

difference between the method by which they obtain their knowledge and

the process of modern scientific investigation by which the facts of

Nature are ascertained and its laws are discovered.  Unless an Adept can

prove his conclusions by the same kind of reasoning as is adopted by the

modern scientist they remain undemonstrated to the outside world. It is

of course impossible for him to develop in a considerable number of

human beings such faculties as would enable them to perceive their

truth;  and it is not always practicable to establish them by the

ordinary scientific method unless all the facts and laws on which his

demonstration is to be based have already been ascertained by modern

science.  No Adept can be expected to anticipate the discoveries of the

next four or five centuries, and prove some grand scientific truth to

the entire satisfaction of the educated public after having discovered

every fact and law of Nature required for the said purpose by such

process of reasoning as would be accepted by them.  They have to

encounter similar difficulties in giving any information regarding the

events of the ancient history of India.

 

However, before giving the exact date assigned to Sankaracharya by the

Indian and Tibetan initiates, we shall indicate a few circumstances by

which his date may be approximately determined. It is our humble opinion

that the Sankara Vijayams hitherto published can be relied upon as far

as they are consistent with each other regarding the general outlines of

Sankara's life.  We cannot, however, place any reliance whatever upon

Anandagiri's Sankara Vijaya published at Calcutta.  The Calcutta edition

not only differs in some very material points from the manuscript copies

of the same work found in Southern India, but is opposed to every other

Sankara Vijayam hitherto examined.  It is quite clear from its style and

some of the statements contained therein, that it was not the production

of Anandagiri, one of the four chief disciples of Sankara and the

commentator on his Upanishad Bhashyam.  For instance, it represents

Sankara as the author of a certain verse which is to be found in

Vidyaranya's Adhikaranaratnamala, written in the fourteenth century.  It

represents Sankara as giving orders to two of his disciples to preach

the Visishtadwaitee and the Dwaitee doctrines, which are directly

opposed to his own doctrine.  The book under consideration says that

Sankara went to conquer Mandanamisra in debate, followed by

Sureswaracharya, though Mandanamisra assumed the latter name at the time

of initiation.  It is unnecessary for us here to point out all the

blunders and absurdities of this book.  It will be sufficient to say

that in our opinion it was not written by Anandagiri, and that it was

the introduction of an unknown author who does not appear to have been

even tolerably well acquainted with the history of the Adwaitee

doctrine. Vidyaranya's (otherwise Sayanachary, the great commentator of

the Vedas) Sankara Vijaya is decidedly the most reliable source of

information as regards the main features of Sankara's biography. Its

authorship has been universally accepted, and the information contained

therein was derived by its author, as may be seen from his own

statements, from certain old biographies of Sankara existing at the time

of its composition.  Taking into consideration the author's vast

knowledge and information, and the opportunities he had for collecting

materials for his work when he was the head of the Sringeri Matham,

there is every reason to believe that he had embodied in his work the

most reliable information he could obtain.  Mr. Wilson, however, says

that the book in question is "much too poetical and legendary" to be

acknowledged as a great authority.  We admit that the style is highly

poetical, but we deny that the work is legendary.  Mr. Wilson is not

justified in characterizing it as such on account of its description of

some of the wonderful phenomena shown by Sankara.  Probably the learned

Orientalist would not be inclined to consider the Biblical account of

Christ in the same light.  It is not the peculiar privilege of

Christianity to have a miracle-worker for its first propagator.  In the

following observations we shall take such facts as are required from

this work.

 

It is generally believed that a person named Govinda Yogi was Sankara's

Guru, but it is not generally known that this Yogi was in fact

Patanjali--the great author of the Mahabhashya and the Yoga Sutras--

under a new name.  A tradition current in Southern India represents him

as one of the Chelas of Patanjali;  but it is very doubtful if this

tradition has anything like a proper foundation.  But it is quite clear

from the 94th, 95th, 96th, and 97th verses of the 5th chapter of

Vidyaranya's Sankara Vijayam that Govinda Yogi and Patanjali were

identical.  According to the immemorial custom observed amongst

initiates, Patanjali assumed the name of Govinda Yogi at the time of his

initiation by Goudapada.  It cannot be contended that Vidyaranya

represented Patanjali as Sankara's Guru merely for the purpose of

assigning some importance to Sankara and his teaching.  Sankara is

looked upon as a far greater man than Patanjali by the Adwaitees, and

nothing can be added to Sankara's reputation by Vidyaranya's assertion.

Moreover, Patanjali's views are not altogether identical with Sankara's

views;  it may be seen from Sankara's writings that he attached no

importance whatever to the practices of Hatha Yog regarding which

Patanjali composed his Yoga Sutras. Under such circumstances, if

Vidyaranya had the option of selecting a Guru for Sankara, he would no

doubt have represented Vyasa himself (who is supposed to be still

living) as his Guru. We see no reason therefore to doubt the correctness

of the statement under examination.  Therefore, as Sankara was

Patanjali's Chela, and as Goudapada was his Guru, his date will enable

us to fix the dates of Sankara and Goudapada.  We may here point out to

our readers a mistake that appears in p. 148 of Mr. Sinnett's book on

Esoteric Buddhism as regards the latter personage.  He is there

represented as Sankara's Guru;  Mr. Sinnett was informed, we believe,

that he was Sankara's Paramaguru, and not having properly understood the

meaning of this expression, Mr. Sinnett wrote that he was Sankara's

Guru.

 

It is generally admitted by Orientalists that Patanjali lived before the

commencement of the Christian era.  Mr. Barth places him in the second

century before the Christian era, accepting Goldstucker's opinion, and

Monier Williams does the same thing. Weber, who seems to have carefully

examined the opinions of all the other Orientalists who have written

upon the subject, comes to the conclusion that "we must for the present

rest satisfied with placing the date of the composition of the Bhashya

between B.C. 140 and A.D. 60, a result which considering the wretched

state of the chronology of Indian Liturgy generally is, despite its

indefiniteness, of no mean importance."  And yet even this date rests

upon inferences drawn from one or two unimportant expressions contained

in Patanjali's Mahabhashya.  It is always dangerous to draw such

inferences, and especially so when it is known that, according to the

tradition current amongst Hindu grammarians, some portions of

Mahabhashya were lost, the gaps being filled up by subsequent writers.

Even supposing that we should consider the expression quoted as written

by Patanjali himself, there is nothing in those expressions which would

enable us to fix the writer's date.  For instance, the connection

between the expression "Arunad Yavanah Saketam" and the expedition of

Menander against Ayodhya between B.C. 144 and 120, relied upon by

Goldstucker is merely imaginary.  There is nothing in the expression to

show that the allusion contained therein points necessarily to

Menander's expedition.  We believe that Patanjali is referring to the

expedition of Yavanas against Ayodhya during the lifetime of Sagara's

father described in Harivamsa.  This expedition occurred long before

Rama's time, and there is nothing to connect it with Menander.

Goldstucker's inference is based upon the assumption that there was no

other Yavana expedition against Ayodhya known to Patanjali, and it will

be easily seen from Harivamsa (written by Vyasa) that the said

assumption is unwarranted.  Consequently the whole theory constructed by

Goldstucker on this weak foundation falls to the ground.  No valid

inferences can be drawn from the mere names of kings contained in

Mahabhashya, even if they are traced to Patanjali himself, as there

would be several kings in the same dynasty bearing the same name.  From

the foregoing remarks it will be clear that we cannot fix, as Weber has

done, B.C. 140 as the maximum limit of antiquity that can be assigned to

Patanjali. It is now necessary to see whether any other such limit has

been ascertained by Orientalists.  As Panini's date still remains

undetermined, the limit cannot be fixed with reference to his date.  But

it is assumed by some Orientalists that Panini must have lived at some

time subsequent to Alexander's invasion, from the fact that Panini

explains in his Grammar the formation of the word Yavanani.  We are very

sorry that European Orientalists have taken the pains to construct

theories upon this basis without ascertaining the meaning assigned to

the word Yavana, and the time when the Hindus first became acquainted

with the Greeks.  It is unreasonable to assume without proof that this

acquaintance commenced at the time of Alexander's invasion.  On the

other hand, there are very good reasons for believing that the Greeks

were known to the Hindus long before this event.  Pythagoras visited

India, according to the traditions current amongst Indian initiates, and

he is alluded to in Indian astrological works under the name of

Yavanacharya.  Moreover, it is not quite certain that the word Yavana

was strictly confined to the Greeks by the ancient Hindu writers.

Probably it was originally applied to the Egyptians and the Ethiopians;

it was probably extended first to the Alexandrian Greeks, and

subsequently to the Greeks, Persians, and Arabians.  Besides the Yavana

invasion of Ayodhya described in Harivamsa, there was another subsequent

expedition to India by Kala Yavana (Black Yavana) during Krishna's

lifetime described in the same work.  This expedition was probably

undertaken by the Ethiopians.  Anyhow, there are no reasons whatever, as

far as we can see, for asserting that Hindu writers began to use the

word Yavana after Alexander's invasion.  We can attach no importance

whatever to any inferences that may be drawn regarding the dates of

Panini and Katyayana (both of them lived before Patanjali) from the

statements contained in Katha Sarit Sayara, which is nothing more than a

mere collection of fables. It is now seen by Orientalists that no proper

conclusions can be drawn regarding the dates of Panini and Katyayana

from the statements made by Hiuan Thsang, and we need not therefore say

anything here regarding the said statements.  Consequently the dates of

Panini and Katyayana still remain undetermined by European Orientalists.

Goldstucker is probably correct in his conclusion that Panini lived

before Buddha, and the Buddhists' accounts agree with the traditions of

the initiates in asserting that Katyayana was a contemporary of Buddha.

From the fact that Patanjali must have composed his Mahabhashyam after

the composition of Panini's Sutras and Katyayana's Vartika, we can only

infer that it was written after Buddha's birth.  But there are a few

considerations which may help us in coming to the conclusion that

Patanjali must have lived about the year 500 B.C.;  Max Muller fixed the

Sutra period between 500 B.C. and 600 B.C.  We agree with him in

supposing that the period probably ended with B.C. 500, though it is

uncertain how far it extended into the depths of Indian antiquity.

Patanjali was the author of the Yoga Sutras, and this fact has not been

doubted by any Hindu writer up to this time.  Mr. Weber thinks, however,

that the author of the Yoga Sutras might be a different man from the

author of the Mahabhashya, though he does not venture to assign any

reason for his supposition.  We very much doubt if any European

Orientalist can ever find out the connection between the first Anhika of

the Mahabhashya and the real secrets of Hatha Yoga contained in the Yoga

Sutras.  No one but an initiate can understand the full significance of

the said Anhika;  and the "eternity of the Logos" or Sabda is one of the

principal doctrines of the Gymnosophists of India, who were generally

Hatha Yogis.  In the opinion of Hindu writers and pundits Patanjali was

the author of three works, viz., Mahabhashya, Yoga Sutras, and a book on

Medicine and Anatomy;  and there is not the slightest reason for

questioning the correctness of this opinion.  We must, therefore, place

Patanjali in the Sutra period, and this conclusion is confirmed by the

traditions of the Indian initiates.  As Sankaracharya was a contemporary

of Patanjali (being his Chela) he must have lived about the same time.

We have thus shown that there are no reasons for placing Sankara in the

eighth or ninth century after Christ, as some of the European

Orientalists have done.  We have further shown that Sankara was

Patanjali's Chela, and that his date should be ascertained with

reference to Patanjali's date.  We have also shown that neither the year

B.C. 140 nor the date of Alexander's invasion can be accepted as the

maximum limit of antiquity that can be assigned to him, and we have

lastly pointed out a few circumstances which will justify us in

expressing an opinion that Patanjali and his Chela Sankara belonged to

the Sutra period.  We may, perhaps, now venture to place before the

public the exact date assigned to Sankaracharya by Tibetan and Indian

initiates.  According to the historical information in their possession

he was born in the year B.C. 510 (fifty-one years and two months after

the date of Buddha's Nirvana), and we believe that satisfactory evidence

in support of this date can be obtained in India if the inscriptions at

Conjeveram, Sringeri, Jaggurnath, Benares, Cashmere, and various other

places visited by Sankara, are properly deciphered. Sankara built

Conjeveram, which is considered as one of the most ancient towns in

Southern India;  and it may be possible to ascertain the time of its

construction if proper inquiries are made.  But even the evidence now

brought before the public supports the opinion of the Initiates above

indicated.  As Goudapada was Sankaracharya's Guru's guru, his date

entirely depends on Sankara's date;  and there is every reason to

suppose that he lived before Buddha.

 

 

 

Question VI.--"Historical Difficulty"--Why?

 

 

It is asked whether there may not be "some confusion" in the letter

quoted on p. 62 of "Esoteric Buddhism" regarding "old Greeks and Romans

said to have been Atlanteans."  The answer is--None whatever.  The word

"Atlantean" was a generic name.  The objection to have it applied to the

old Greeks and Romans on the ground that they were Aryans, "their

language being intermediate between Sanskrit and modern European

dialects," is worthless. With equal reason might a future 6th Race

scholar, who had never heard of the (possible) submergence of a portion

of European Turkey, object to Turks from the Bosphorus being referred to

as a remnant of the Europeans.  "The Turks are surely Semites," he might

say 12,000 years hence, and "their language is intermediate between

Arabic and our modern 6th Race dialects." *

 

--------

* This is not to be construed to mean that 12,000 years hence there will

be yet any man of the 6th Race, or that the 5th will be submerged.  The

figures are given simply for the sake of a better comparison with the

present objection in the case of the Greeks and Atlantis.

---------

 

The "historical difficulty" arises from a certain authoritative

statement made by Orientalists on philological grounds. Professor Max

Muller has brilliantly demonstrated that Sanskrit was the "elder

sister"--by no means the mother--of all the modern languages.  As to

that "mother," it is conjectured by himself and colleagues to be a "now

extinct tongue, spoken probably by the nascent Aryan race."  When asked

what was this language, the Western voice answers: "Who can tell?"

When, "during what geological periods did this nascent race flourish?"

the same impressive voice replies:  "In prehistoric ages, the duration

of which no one can now determine."  Yet it must have been Sanskrit,

however barbarous and unpolished, since "the ancestors of the Greeks,

the Italians, Slavonians, Germans and Kelts" were living within "the

same precincts" with that nascent race, and the testimony borne by

language has enabled the philologist to trace the "language of the gods"

in the speech of every Aryan nation. Meanwhile it is affirmed by these

same Orientalists that classical Sanskrit has its origin at the very

threshold of the Christian era;  while Vedic Sanskrit is allowed an

antiquity of hardly 3,000 years (if so much) before that time.

 

Now, Atlantis, on the statement of the "Adepts," sank over 9,000 years

before the Christian era.*  How then can one maintain that the "old

Greeks and Romans" were Atlanteans?  How can that be, since both nations

are Aryans, and the genesis of their languages is Sanskrit?  Moreover,

the Western scholars know that the Greek and Latin languages were formed

within historical periods, the Greeks and Latins themselves having no

existence as nations 11,000 B.C..  Surely they who advance such a

proposition do not realize how very unscientific is their statement!

 

----------

* The position recently taken up by Mr. Gerald Massey in Light that the

story of Atlantis is not a geological event but an ancient astronomical

myth, is rather imprudent.  Mr. Massey, notwithstanding his rare

intuitional faculties and great learning, is one of those writers in

whom the intensity of research bent into one direction has biased his

otherwise clear understanding.  Because Hercules is now a constellation

it does not follow that there never was a hero of this name.  Because

the Noachian Universal Deluge is now proved a fiction based upon

geological and geographical ignorance, it does not, therefore, appear

that there were not many local deluges in prehistoric ages.  The

ancients connected every terrestrial event with the celestial bodies.

They traced the history of their great deified heroes and memorialized

it in stellar configurations as often as they personified pure myths,

anthropomorphizing objects in Nature.  One has to learn the difference

between the two modes before attempting to classify them under one

nomenclature.  An earthquake has just engulfed over 80,000 people

(87,903) in Sunda Straits.  These were mostly Malays, savages with whom

but few had relations, and the dire event will be soon forgotten.  Had a

portion of Great Britain been thus swept away instead, the whole world

would have been in commotion, and yet, a few thousand years hence, even

such an event would have passed out of man's memory; and a future Gerald

Massey might be found speculating upon the astronomical character and

signification of the Isles of Wight, Jersey, or Man, arguing, perhaps,

that this latter island had not contained a real living race of men but

"belonged to astronomical mythology," was a "Man submerged in celestial

waters."  If the legend of the lost Atlantis is only "like those of

Airyana-Vaejo and Jambu-dvipa," it is terrestrial enough, and therefore

"the mythological origin of the Deluge legend" is so far an open

question.  We claim that it is not "indubitably demonstrated," however

clever the theoretical demonstration.

---------

 

Such are the criticisms passed, such the "historical difficulty." The

culprits arraigned are fully alive to their perilous situation;

nevertheless, they maintain the statement.  The only thing which may

perhaps here be objected to is, that the names of the two nations are

incorrectly used.  It may be argued that to refer to the remote

ancestors and their descendants equally as "Greeks and Romans," is an

anachronism as marked as would be the calling of the ancient Keltic

Gauls, or the Insubres, Frenchmen. As a matter of fact this is true.

But, besides the very plausible excuse that the names used were embodied

in a private letter, written as usual in great haste, and which was

hardly worthy of the honour of being quoted verbatim with all its

imperfections, there may perhaps exist still weightier objections to

calling the said people by any other name.  One misnomer is as good as

another;  and to refer to old Greeks and Romans in a private letter as

the old Hellenes from Hellas or Magna Graecia, and the Latins as from

Latium, would have been, besides looking pedantic, just as incorrect as

the use of the appellation noted, though it may have sounded, perchance,

more "historical."  The truth is that, like the ancestors of nearly all

the Indo-Europeans (or shall we say Indo-Germanic Japhetidae?), the

Greek and Roman sub-races mentioned have to be traced much farther back.

Their origin must be carried far into the mists of that "prehistoric"

period, that mythical age which inspires the modern historian with such

a feeling of squeamishness that anything creeping out of its abysmal

depths is sure to be instantly dismissed as a deceptive phantom, the

mythos of an idle tale, or a later fable unworthy of serious notice.

The Atlantean "old Greeks" could not be designated even as the

Autochthones--a convenient term used to dispose of the origin of any

people whose ancestry cannot be traced, and which, at any rate with the

Hellenes, meant certainly more than simply "soil-born," or primitive

aborigines;  and yet the so-called fable of Deukalion and Pyrrha is

surely no more incredible or marvelous than that of Adam and Eve--a

fable that hardly a hundred years ago no one would have dared or even

thought to question.  And in its esoteric significance the Greek

tradition is possibly more truly historical than many a so-called

historical event during the period of the Olympiades, though both Hesiod

and Homer may have failed to record the former in their epics.  Nor

could the Romans be referred to as the Umbro-Sabbellians, nor even as

the Itali. Peradventure, had the historians learnt something more than

they have of the Italian "Autochthones"--the Iapygians--one might have

given the "old Romans" the latter name.  But then there would be again

that other difficulty:  history knows that the Latin invaders drove

before them, and finally cooped up, this mysterious and miserable race

among the clefts of the Calabrian rocks, thus showing the absence of any

race affinity between the two.  Moreover, Western archeologists keep to

their own counsel, and will accept of no other but their own

conjectures.  And since they have failed to make anything out of the

undecipherable inscriptions in an unknown tongue and mysterious

characters on the Iapygian monuments, and so for years have pronounced

them unguessable, he who would presume to meddle where the doctors

muddle would be likely to be reminded of the Arab proverb about

proffered advice.  Thus, it seems hardly possible to designate "the old

Greeks and Romans" by their legitimate, true name, so as to at once

satisfy the "historians" and keep on the fair side of truth and fact.

However, since in the Replies that precede Science had to be repeatedly

shocked by most unscientific propositions, and that before this series

is closed many a difficulty, philological and archeological as well as

historical, will have to be unavoidably created--it may be just as wise

to uncover the occult batteries at once and have it over with.

 

Well, then, the "Adepts" deny most emphatically to Western science any

knowledge whatever of the growth and development of the Indo-Aryan race

which, "at the very dawn of history," they have espied in its

"patriarchal simplicity" on the banks of the Oxus.  Before our

proposition concerning "the old Greeks and Romans" can be repudiated or

even controverted, Western Orientalists will have to know more than they

do about the antiquity of that race and the Aryan language;  and they

will have to account for those numberless gaps in history which no

hypotheses of theirs seem able to fill up.  Notwithstanding their

present profound ignorance with regard to the early ancestry of the

Indo-European nations, and though no historian has yet ventured to

assign even a remotely approximate date to the separation of the Aryan

nations and the origins of the Sanskrit language, they hardly show the

modesty that might, under these circumstances, be expected from them.

Placing as they do that great separation of the races at the first "dawn

of traditional history," with the Vedic age as "the background of the

whole Indian world" (of which confessedly they know nothing), they will,

nevertheless, calmly assign a modern date to any of the Rik-vedic oldest

songs, on its "internal evidence;"  and in doing this, they show as

little hesitation as Mr. Fergusson when ascribing a post-Christian age

to the most ancient rockcut temple in India, merely on its "external

form."  As for their unseemly quarrels, mutual recriminations, and

personalities over questions of scholarship, the less said the better.

 

"The evidence of language is irrefragable," as the great Oxford

Sanskritist says.  To which he is answered--"provided it does not clash

with historical facts and ethnology."  It may be--no doubt it is, as far

as his knowledge goes--"the only evidence worth listening to with regard

to ante-historical periods;"  but when something of these alleged

"prehistorical periods" comes to be known, and when what we think we

know of certain supposed prehistoric nations is found diametrically

opposed to his "evidence of language," the "Adepts" may be, perhaps,

permitted to keep to their own views and opinions, even though they

differ with those of the greatest living philologist.  The study of

language is but a part--though, we admit, a fundamental part--of true

philology.  To be complete, the latter has, as correctly argued by

Bockt, to be almost synonymous with history.  We gladly concede the

right to the Western philologist, who has to work in the total absence

of any historical data, to rely upon comparative grammar, and take the

identification of roots lying at the foundation of words of those

languages he is familiar with, or may know of, and put it forward as the

result of his study, and the only available evidence.  But we would like

to see the same right conceded by him to the student of other races;

even though these be inferior to the European races, in the opinion of

the paramount West:  for it is barely possible that, proceeding on other

lines, and having reduced his knowledge to a system which precludes

hypothesis and simple affirmation, the Eastern student has preserved a

perfectly authentic record (for him) of those periods which his opponent

regards as ante-historical.  The bare fact that, while Western men of

science are referred to as "scholars" and scholiasts--native

Sanskritists and archeologists are often spoken of as "Calcutta" and

"Indian sciolists"--affords no proof of their real inferiority, but

rather of the wisdom of the Chinese proverb that "self-conceit is rarely

companion to politeness."

 

The "Adept" therefore has little, if anything, to do with difficulties

presented by Western history.  To his knowledge--based on documentary

records from which, as said, hypothesis is excluded, and as regards

which even psychology is called to play a very secondary part--the

history of his and other nations extends immeasurably beyond that hardly

discernible point that stands on the far-away horizon of the Western

world as a landmark of the commencement of its history.  Records made

throughout a series of ages, based on astronomical chronology and

zodiacal calculations, cannot err.  (This new "difficulty"--

palaeographical, t his time--that may be possibly suggested by the

mention of the Zodiac in India and Central Asia before the Christian

era, is disposed of in a subsequent article.)

 

Hence, the main question at issue is to decide which--the Orientalist or

the "Oriental"--is most likely to err.  The "English F.T.S." has choice

of two sources of information, two groups of teachers.  One group is

composed of Western historians with their suite of learned Ethnologists,

Philologists, Anthropologists, Archeologists and Orientalists in

general.  The other consists of unknown Asiatics belonging to a race

which, notwithstanding Mr. Max Muller's assertion that the same "blood

is running in the veins (of the English soldier) and in the veins of the

dark Bengalese," is generally regarded by many a cultured Western as

"inferior."  A handful of men can hardly hope to be listened to,

specially when their history, religion, language, origin and sciences,

having been seized upon by the conqueror, are now disfigured and

mutilated beyond recognition, and who have lived to see the Western

scholar claim a monopoly beyond appeal or protest of deciding the

correct meaning, chronological date, and historical value of the

monumental and palaeographic relics of his motherland.  It has little,

if ever, entered the mind of the Western public that their scholars

have, until very lately, worked in a narrow pathway obstructed with the

ruins of an ecclesiastical, dogmatic Past;  that they have been cramped

on all sides by limitations of "revealed" events coming from God, "with

whom a thousand years are but as one day," and who have thus felt bound

to cram millenniums into centuries and hundreds into units, giving at

the utmost an age of 1,000 to what is 10,000 years old.  All this to

save the threatened authority of their religion and their own

respectability and good name in cultured society.  And even that, when

free themselves from preconceptions, they have had to protect the honour

of the Jewish divine chronology assailed by stubborn facts;  and thus

have become (often unconsciously) the slaves of an artificial history

made to fit into the narrow frame of a dogmatic religion.  No proper

thought has been given to this purely psychological but very significant

trifle.  Yet we all know how, rather than admit any relation between

Sanskrit and the Gothic, Keltic, Greek, Latin and old Persian, facts

have been tampered with, old texts purloined from libraries, and

philological discoveries vehemently denied.  And we have also heard from

our retreats, how Dugald Stewart and his colleagues, upon seeing that

the discovery would also involve ethnological affinities, and damage the

prestige of those sires of the world races--Shem, Ham and Japhet--denied

in the face of fact that "Sanskrit had ever been a living, spoken

language," supporting the theory that "it was an invention of the

Brahmins, who had constructed their Sanskrit on the model of the Greek

and Latin."  And again we know, holding the proof of the same, how the

majority of Orientalists are prone to go out of their way to prevent any

Indian antiquity (whether MSS. or inscribed monument, whether art or

science) from being declared pre-Christian.  As the origin and history

of the Gentile world is made to move in the narrow circuit of a few

centuries "B.C.," within that fecund epoch when mother earth,

recuperated from her arduous labours of the Stone age, begat, it seems

without transition, so many highly civilized nations and false

pretenses, so the enchanted circle of Indian archeology lies between the

(to them unknown) year of the Samvat era, and the tenth century of the

Western chronology.

 

Having to dispose of an "historical difficulty" of such a serious

character, the defendants charged with it can but repeat what they have

already stated;  all depends upon the past history and antiquity allowed

to the Indo-Aryan nation.  The first step to take is to ascertain how

much History herself knows of that almost prehistoric period when the

soil of Europe had not been trodden yet by the primitive Aryan tribes.

From the latest Encyclopedia down to Professor Max Muller and other

Orientalists, we gather what follows;  they acknowledge that at some

immensely remote period, before the Aryan nations got divided from the

parent stock (with the germs of Indo-Germanic languages in them); and

before they rushed asunder to scatter over Europe and Asia in search of

new homes, there stood a "single barbaric (?) people as physical and

political representative of the nascent Aryan race." This people spoke

"a now extinct Aryan language," from which by a series of modifications

(surely requiring more thousands of years than our difficulty-makers are

willing to concede) there arose gradually all the subsequent languages

now spoken by the Caucasian races.

 

That is about all Western history knows of its genesis.  Like Ravana's

brother, Kumbhakarna,--the Hindu Rip van Winkle--it slept for a long

series of ages a dreamless, heavy sleep.  And when at last it awoke to

consciousness, it was but to find the "nascent Aryan race" grown into

scores of nations, peoples and races, most of them effete and crippled

with age, many irretrievably extinct, while the true origin of the

younger ones it was utterly unable to account for.  So much for the

"youngest brother."  As for "the eldest brother, the Hindu," who,

Professor Max Muller tells us, "was the last to leave the central home

of the Aryan family," and whose history this eminent philologist has now

kindly undertaken to impart to him,--he, the Hindu, claims that while

his Indo-European relative was soundly sleeping under the protecting

shadow of Noah's ark, he kept watch and did not miss seeing one event

from his high Himalayan fastnesses;  and that he has recorded the

history thereof, in a language which, though as incomprehensible as the

Iapygian inscriptions to the Indo-European immigrant, is quite clear to

the writers.  For this crime he now stands condemned as a falsifier of

the records of his forefathers.  A place has been hitherto purposely

left open for India "to be filled up when the pure metal of history

should have been extracted from the ore of Brahmanic exaggeration and

superstition."  Unable, however, to meet this programme, the Orientalist

has since persuaded himself that there was nothing in that "ore" but

dross.  He did more.  He applied himself to contrast Brahmanic

"superstition" and "exaggeration" with Mosaic revelation and its

chronology.  The Veda was confronted with Genesis.  Its absurd claims to

antiquity were forthwith dwarfed to their proper dimensions by the 4,004

years B.C. measure of the world's age;  and the Brahmanic "superstition

and fables" about the longevity of the Aryan Rishis, were belittled and

exposed by the sober historical evidence furnished in "The genealogy and

age of the Patriarchs from Adam to Noah," whose respective days were 930

and 950 years;  without mentioning Methuselah, who died at the premature

age of nine hundred and sixty-nine.

 

In view of such experience, the Hindu has a certain right to decline the

offers made to correct his annals by Western history and chronology.  On

the contrary, he would respectfully advise the Western scholar, before

he denies point-blank any statement made by the Asiatics with reference

to what is prehistoric ages to Europeans, to show that the latter have

themselves anything like trustworthy data as regards their own racial

history.  And that settled, he may have the leisure and capacity to help

his ethnic neighbours to prune their genealogical trees.  Our Rajputs,

among others, have perfectly trustworthy family records of an unbroken

lineal descent through 2,000 years "B.C." and more, as proved by Colonel

Tod;  records which are accepted by the British Government in its

official dealings with them.  It is not enough to have studied stray

fragments of Sanskrit literature--even though their number should amount

to 10,000 texts, as boasted of--allowed to fall into foreign hands, to

speak so confidently of the "Aryan first settlers in India," and assert

that, "left to themselves, in a world of their own, without a past and

without a future (!) before them, they had nothing but themselves to

ponder upon," and therefore could know absolutely nothing of other

nations.  To comprehend correctly and make out the inner meaning of most

of them, one has to read these texts with the help of the esoteric

light, and after having mastered the language of the Brahmanic Secret

Code--branded generally as "theological twaddle."  Nor is it

sufficient--if one would judge correctly of what the archaic Aryans did

or did not know;  whether or not they cultivated the social and

political virtues;  cared or not for history--to claim proficiency in

both Vedic and classical Sanskrit, as well as in Prakrit and Arya

Bhasha.  To comprehend the esoteric meaning of ancient Brahmanical

literature, one has, as just remarked, to be in possession of the key to

the Brahmanical Code.  To master the conventional terms used in the

Puranas, the Aranyakas and Upanishads is a science in itself, and one

far more difficult than even the study of the 3,996 aphoristical rules

of Panini, or his algebraical symbols.  Very true, most of the Brahmans

themselves have now forgotten the correct interpretations of their

sacred texts.  Yet they know enough of the dual meaning in their

scriptures to be justified in feeling amused at the strenuous efforts of

the European Orientalist to protect the supremacy of his own national

records and the dignity of his science by interpreting the Hindu

hieratic text after a peremptory fashion quite unique.  Disrespectful

though it may seem, we call on the philologist to prove in some more

convincing manner than usual, that he is better qualified than even the

average Hindu Sanskrit pundit to judge of the antiquity of the "language

of the gods;"  that he has been really in a position to trace unerringly

along the lines of countless generations the course of the "now extinct

Aryan tongue" in its many and various transformations in the West, and

its primitive evolution into first the Vedic, and then the classical

Sanskrit in the East, and that from the moment when the mother-stream

began deviating into its new ethnographical beds, he has followed it up.

Finally that, while he, the Orientalist, can, owing to speculative

interpretations of what he thinks he has learnt from fragments of

Sanskrit literature, judge of the nature of all that he knows nothing

about--i.e., to speculate upon the past history of a great nation he has

lost sight of from its "nascent state," and caught up again but at the

period of its last degeneration--the native student never knew, nor can

ever know, anything of that history.  Until the Orientalist has proved

all this, he can be accorded but small justification for assuming that

air of authority and supreme contempt which is found in almost every

work upon India and its Past.  Having no knowledge himself whatever of

those incalculable ages that lie between the Aryan Brahman in Central

Asia, and the Brahman at the threshold of Buddhism, he has no right to

maintain that the initiated Indo-Aryan can never know as much of them

as the foreigner.  Those periods being an utter blank to him, he is

little qualified to declare that the Aryan, having had no political

history "of his own...." his only sphere was "religion and

philosophy.... in solitude and contemplation."  A happy thought

suggested, no doubt, by the active life, incessant wars, triumphs, and

defeats portrayed in the oldest songs of the Rik-Veda.  Nor can he with

the smallest show of logic affirm that "India had no place in the

political history of the world," or that "there are no synchronisms

between the history of the Brahmans and that of other nations before the

date of the origin of Buddhism in India;"  for he knows no more of the

prehistoric history of those "other nations" than of that of the

Brahman.  All his inferences, conjectures and systematic arrangements of

hypotheses begin very little earlier than 200 "B.C.," if even so much,

on anything like really historical grounds.  He has to prove all this

before he can command our attention.  Otherwise, however "irrefragable

the evidence of language," the presence of Sanskrit roots in all the

European languages will be insufficient to prove, either that (a) before

the Aryan invaders descended toward the seven rivers they had never left

their northern regions;  or (b) why the "eldest brother, the Hindu,"

should have been "the last to leave the central home of the Aryan

family."  To the philologist such a supposition may seem "quite

natural."  Yet the Brahman is no less justified in his ever-growing

suspicion that there may be at the bottom some occult reason for such a

programme.  That in the interest of his theory the Orientalist was

forced to make "the eldest brother" tarry so suspiciously long on the

Oxus, or wherever "the youngest" may have placed him in his "nascent

state" after the latter "saw his brothers all depart towards the setting

sun."  We find reasons to believe that the chief motive for alleging

such a procrastination is the necessity to bring the race closer to the

Christian era.  To show the "brother" inactive and unconcerned, "with

nothing but himself to ponder on," lest his antiquity and "fables of

empty idolatry," and perhaps his traditions of other people's doings,

should interfere with the chronology by which it is determined to try

him.  The suspicion is strengthened when one finds in the book from

which we have been so largely quoting--a work of a purely scientific and

philological character--such frequent remarks and even prophecies as:

"History seems to teach that the whole human race required a gradual

education before, in the fulness of time, it could be admitted to the

truths of Christianity."  Or, again "The ancient religions of the world

were but the milk of Nature, which was in due time to be succeeded by

the bread of life;"  and such broad sentiments expressed as that "there

is some truth in Buddhism, as there is in every one of the false

religions of the world, but...." *

 

-----------

* Max Muller's "History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature."

-----------

 

The atmosphere of Cambridge and Oxford seems decidedly unpropitious to

the recognition of either Indian antiquity, or the merit of the

philosophies sprung from its soil!*

 

---------

* And how one-sided and biased most of the Western Orientalists are may

be seen by reading carefully "The History of Indian Literature," by

Albrecht Weber--a Sanskrit scholiast classed with the highest

authorities.  The incessant harping upon the one special string of

Christianity, and the ill-concealed efforts to pass it off as the

keynote of all other religions, is painfully pre-eminent in his work.

Christian influences are shown to have affected not only the growth of

Buddhism and Krishna worship, but even that of the Siva-cult and its

legends;  it is openly stated that "it is not at all a far-fetched

hypothesis that they have reference to scattered Christian

missionaries!"  The eminent Orientalist evidently forgets that,

notwithstanding his efforts, none of the Vedic, Sutra or Buddhist

periods can be possibly crammed into this Christian period--their

universal tank of all ancient creeds, and of which some Orientalists

would fain make a poor-house for all decayed archaic religions and

philosophy. Even Tibet, in his opinion, has not escaped "Western

influence." Let us hope to the contrary.  It can be proved that Buddhist

missionaries were as numerous in Palestine, Alexandria, Persia, and even

Greece, two centuries before the Christian era, as the Padris are now in

Asia.  That the Gnostic doctrines (as he is obliged to confess) are

permeated with Buddhism.  Basilides, Valentinian, Bardesanes, and

especially Manes were simply heretical Buddhists, "the formula of

abjuration of these doctrines in the case of the latter, specifying

expressly Buddha (Bodda) by name."

----------

 

 

 

Leaflets from Esoteric History

 

 

The foregoing--a long, yet necessary digression--will show that the

Asiatic scholar is justified in generally withholding what he may know.

That it is not merely on historical facts that hangs the "historical

difficulty" at issue;  but rather on its degree of interference with

time-honoured, long-established conjectures, often raised to the

eminence of an unapproachable historical axiom.  That no statement

coming from our quarters can ever hope to be given consideration so long

as it has to be supported on the ruins of reigning hobbies, whether of

an alleged historical or religious character.  Yet pleasant it is, after

the brainless assaults to which occult sciences have hitherto been

subjected--assaults in which abuse has been substituted for argument,

and flat denial for calm inquiry--to find that there remain in the West

some men who will come into the field like philosophers, and soberly and

fairly discuss the claims of our hoary doctrines to the respect due to a

truth and the dignity demanded for a science.  Those alone whose sole

desire is to ascertain the truth, not to maintain foregone conclusions,

have a right to expect undisguised facts.  Reverting to our subject, so

far as allowable, we will now, for the sake of that minority, give them.

 

The records of the Occultists make no difference between the "Atlantean"

ancestors of the old Greeks and Romans.  Partially corroborated and in

turn contradicted by licensed or recognized history, their records teach

that of the ancient Latini of classic legend called Itali;  of that

people, in short, which, crossing the Apennines (as their Judo-Aryan

brothers--let this be known--had crossed before them the Hindoo-Koosh)

entered from the north the peninsula--there survived at a period long

before the days of Romulus but the name, and a nascent language.

Profane history informs us that the Latins of the "mythical era" got so

Hellenized amidst the rich colonies of Magna Grecia that there remained

nothing in them of their primitive Latin nationality. It is the Latins

proper, it says, those pre-Roman Italians who by settling in Latium had

from the first kept themselves free from the Greek influence, who were

the ancestors of the Romans. Contradicting exoteric history, the Occult

records affirm that if, owing to circumstances too long and complicated

to be related here, the settlers of Latium preserved their primitive

nationality a little longer than their brothers who had first entered

the peninsula with them after leaving the East (which was not their

original home), they lost it very soon, for other reasons.  Free from

the Samnites during the first period, they did not remain free from

other invaders.  While the Western historian puts together the

mutilated, incomplete records of various nations and people, and makes

them into a clever mosaic according to the best and most probable plan

and rejects entirely traditional fables, the Occultist pays not the

slightest attention to the vain self-glorification of alleged conquerors

or their lithic inscriptions.  Nor does he follow the stray bits of

so-called historical information, often concocted by interested parties

and found scattered hither and thither in the fragments of classical

writers, whose original texts themselves have not seldom been tampered

with.  The Occultist follows the ethnological affinities and their

divergences in the various nationalities, races and sub-races, in a more

easy way;  and he is guided in this as surely as the student who

examines a geographical map.  As the latter can easily trace by their

differently coloured outlines the boundaries of the many countries and

their possessions;  their geographical superficies and their separations

by seas, rivers and mountains;  so the Occultist can by following the

(to him) well distinguishable and defined auric shades and gradations of

colour in the inner-man unerringly pronounce to which of the several

distinct human families, as also to what special group, and even small

sub-group of the latter, belongs any particular people, tribe, or man.

This will appear hazy and incomprehensible to the many who know nothing

of ethnic varieties of nerve-aura, and disbelieve in any "inner-man"

theory, scientific but to the few.  The whole question hangs upon the

reality or unreality of the existence of this inner-man whom

clairvoyance has discovered, and whose odyle or nerve-emanations Von

Reichenbach proves.  If one admits such a presence and realizes

intuitionally that being closer related to the one invisible Reality,

the inner type must be still more pronounced than the outer physical

type, then it will be a matter of little, if any, difficulty to conceive

our meaning.  For, indeed, if even the respective physical

idiosyncrasies and special characteristics of any given person make his

nationality usually distinguishable by the physical eye of the ordinary

observer--let alone the experienced ethnologist:  the Englishman being

commonly recognizable at a glance from the Frenchman, the German from

the Italian, not to speak of the typical differences between human

root-families* in their anthropological division--there seems little

difficulty in conceiving that the same, though far more pronounced,

difference of type and characteristics should exist between the inner

races that inhabit these "fleshly tabernacles."  Besides this easily

discernible psychological and astral differences, there are the

documentary records in their unbroken series of chronological tables and

the history of the gradual branching off of races and sub-races from the

three geological primeval Races, the work of the Initiates of all the

archaic and ancient temples up to date, collected in our "Book of

Numbers," and other volumes.

 

 

---------

* Properly speaking, these ought to be called "Geological Races," so as

to be easily distinguished from their subsequent evolutions--the

root-races.  The Occult doctrine has nothing to do with the Biblical

division of Shem, Ham and Japhet, and admires, without accepting it, the

latest Huxleyan physiological division of the human races into their

quintuple groups of Australioids, Negroids, Mongoloids, Xanthechroics,

and the fifth variety of Melanochroics.  Yet it says that the triple

division of the blundering Jews is closer to the truth, it knows but of

three entirely distinct primeval races whose evolution, formation and

development went pari passu and on parallel lines with the evolution,

formation, and development of three geological strata; namely, the

BLACK, the RED-YELLOW, and the BROWN-WHITE RACES.

---------

 

Hence, and on this double testimony (which the Westerns are quite

welcome to reject if so pleased) it is affirmed that, owing to the great

amalgamation of various sub-races, such as the Iapygian, Etruscan,

Pelasgic, and later--the strong admixture of the Hellenic and

Kelto-Gaulic element in the veins of the primitive Itali of

Latium--there remained in the tribes gathered by Romulus on the banks of

the Tiber about as much Latinism as there is now in the Romanic people

of Wallachia.  Of course if the historical foundation of the fable of

the twins of the Vestal Silvia is entirely rejected, together with that

of the foundation of Alba Longa by the son of Aeneas, then it stands to

reason that the whole of the statements made must be likewise a modern

invention built upon the utterly worthless fables of the "legendary

mythical age."  For those who now give these statements, however, there

is more of actual truth in such fables than there is in the alleged

historical Regal period of the earliest Romans.  It is to be deplored

that the present statement should clash with the authoritative

conclusion of Mommsen and others.  Yet, stating but that which to the

"Adepts" is fact, it must be understood at once that all (but the

fanciful chronological date for the foundation of Rome-April, 753

"B.C.") that is given in old traditions in relation to the Paemerium,

and the triple alliance of the Ramnians, Luceres and Tities, of the

so-called Romuleian legend, is indeed far nearer truth than what

external history accepts as facts during the Punic and Macedonian wars

up to, through, and down the Roman Empire to its fall.  The founders of

Rome were decidedly a mongrel people, made up of various scraps and

remnants of the many primitive tribes;  only a few really Latin

families, the descendants of the distinct sub-race that came along with

the Umbro-Sabellians from the East remaining.  And, while the latter

preserved their distinct colour down to the Middle Ages through the

Sabine element, left unmixed in its mountainous regions, the blood of

the true Roman was Hellenic blood from its beginning.  The famous Latin

league is no fable, but history.  The succession of kings descended from

the Trojan Aeneas is a fact;  and the idea that Romulus is to be

regarded as simply the symbolical representative of a people, as Aeolus,

Dorius, and Ion were once, instead of a living man, is as unwarranted as

it is arbitrary.  It could only have been entertained by a class of

historiographers bent upon condoning their sin in supporting the dogma

that Shem, Ham and Japhet were the historical once living ancestors of

mankind, by making a burnt-offering of every really historical but

non-Jewish tradition, legend, or record which might presume to a place

on the same level with these three privileged archaic mariners, instead

of humbly groveling at their feet as "absurd myths" and old wives' tales

and superstitions.

 

It will thus appear that the objectionable statements on pp. 56 and 62

of "Esoteric Buddhism," which are alleged to create an "historical

difficulty," were not made by Mr. Sinnett's correspondent to bolster a

western theory, but in loyalty to historical facts.  Whether they can or

cannot be accepted in those particular localities where criticism seems

based upon mere conjecture (though honoured with the name of scientific

hypothesis), is something which concerns the present writers as little

as any casual traveler's unfavourable comments upon the time-scarred

visage of the Sphinx can affect the designer of that sublime symbol.

The sentences, "the Greeks and Romans were small sub-races of our own

Caucasian stock" (p. 6), and they were "the remnants of the Atlanteans

(the modern belong to the fifth race)" (p. 62), show the real meaning on

their face.  By the old Greeks, "remnants of the Atlanteans" the

eponymous ancestors (as they are called by Europeans) of the Aeolians,

Dorians and Ionians, are meant.  By the connection together of the old

Greeks and Romans without distinction, was meant that the primitive

Latins were swallowed by Magna Graecia.  And by "the modern" belonging

"to the fifth race"--both these small branchlets from whose veins had

been strained out the last drop of the Atlantean blood--it was implied

that the Mongoloid 4th race blood had already been eliminated.

Occultists make a distinction between the races intermediate between any

two root-races:  the Westerns do not. The "old Romans" were Hellenes in

a new ethnological disguise; and the still older Greeks the real blood

ancestors of the future Romans.  In direct relation to this, attention

is drawn to the following fact--one of the many in close historical

bearing upon the "mythical" age to which Atlantis belongs.  It is a

fable and may be charged to the account of historical difficulties.  It

is well calculated, however, to throw all the old ethnological and

genealogical divisions into confusion.

 

Asking the reader to bear in mind that Atlantis, like modern Europe,

comprised many nations and many dialects (issues from the three primeval

root-languages of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Races), we may return to

Poseidonis, its last surviving remnant of 12,000 years ago.  As the

chief element in the languages of the 5th race is the Aryan-Sanskrit of

the "Brown-white" geological stock or race, so the predominating element

in Atlantis was a language which has now survived but in the dialects of

some American Red-Indian tribes, and in the Chinese speech of the

inland Chinamen, the mountainous tribes of Kivang-ze--a language which

was an admixture of the agglutinate and the monosyllabic, as it would be

called by modern philologists.  It was, in short, the language of the

"Red-yellow" second or middle geological stock (we maintain the term

"geological").  A strong percentage of the Mongoloid or 4th Root-race

was, of course, to be found in the Aryans of the 5th.  But this did not

prevent in the least the presence at the same time of unalloyed, pure

Aryan races in it.  A number of small islands scattered around

Poseidonis had been vacated, in consequence of earthquakes, long before

the final catastrophe, which has alone remained in the memory of men--

thanks to some written records.  Tradition says that one of the small

tribes (the Aeolians) who had become islanders after emigrating from far

northern countries, had to leave their home again for fear of a deluge.

If, in spite of the Orientalists and the conjecture of M.F. Lenormant--

who invented a name for a people whose shadowy outline he dimly

perceived in the faraway Past as preceding the Babylonians--we say that

this Aryan race that came from Central Asia, the cradle of the 5th race

Humanity, belonged to the "Akkadian" tribes, there will be a new

historico-ethnological difficulty created.  Yet it is maintained that

these "Akkads" were no more a "Turanian" race than any of the modern

British people are the mythical ten tribes of Israel, so conspicuously

present in the Bible, and absent from history.  With such remarkable

pacta conventa between modern exact (?) and ancient Occult sciences, we

may proceed with the fable.  Belonging virtually, through their original

connection with the Aryan, Central Asian stock, to the 5th race, the old

Aeolians yet were Atlanteans, not only in virtue of their long residence

in the now submerged continent, covering some thousands of years, but by

the free intermingling of blood, by intermarriage with them.  Perhaps in

this connection Mr. Huxley's disposition to account for his Melanochroi

(the Greeks being included under this classification or type)--as

themselves "the result of crossing between the Xanthochroi and the

Australioids," among whom he places the Southern India lower classes and

the Egyptians to some extent--is not far off from fact.  Anyhow the

Aeolians of Atlantis were Aryans on the whole, as much as the Basques--

Dr. Pritchard's Allophylians--are now southern Europeans, although

originally belonging to the South Indian Dravidian stock (their

progenitors having never been the aborigines of Europe prior to the

first Aryan emigration, as supposed).  Frightened by the frequent

earthquakes and the visible approach of the cataclysm, this tribe is

said to have filled a flotilla of arks, to have sailed from beyond the

Pillars of Hercules, and, sailing along the coasts, after several years

of travel to have landed on the shores of the Aegean Sea in the land of

Pyrrha (now Thessaly), to which they gave the name of Aeolia.  Thence

they proceeded on business with the gods to Mount Olympus.  It may be

stated here, at the risk of creating a "geographical difficulty," that

in that mythical age Greece, Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, and many other

islands of the Mediterranean, were simply the far-away possessions, or

colonies, of Atlantis.  Hence, the "fable" proceeds to state that all

along the coasts of Spain, France, and Italy the Aeolians often halted,

and the memory of their "magical feats" still survives among the

descendants of the old Massilians, of the tribes of the later

Carthago-Nova, and the seaports of Etruria and Syracuse.  And here

again it would not be a bad idea, perchance, even at this late hour, for

the archeologists to trace, with the permission of the anthropological

societies, the origin of the various autochthones through their

folk-lore and fables, as they may prove both more suggestive and

reliable than their "undecipherable" monuments.  History catches a misty

glimpse of these particular autochthones thousands of years only after

they had been settled in old Greece--namely, at the moment when the

Epireans cross the Pindus bent on expelling the black magicians from

their home to Boeotia.  But history never listened to the popular

legends which speak of the "accursed sorcerers" who departed, leaving as

an inheritance behind them more than one secret of their infernal arts,

the fame of which crossing the ages has now passed into history--or,

classical Greek and Roman fable, if so preferred.  To this day a popular

tradition narrates how the ancient forefathers of the Thessalonians, so

renowned for their magicians, had come from behind the Pillars, asking

for help and refuge from the great Zeus, and imploring the father of the

gods to save them from the deluge.  But the "Father" expelled them from

the Olympus, allowing their tribe to settle only at the foot of the

mountain, in the valleys, and by the shores of the Aegean Sea.

 

Such is the oldest fable of the ancient Thessalonians.  And now, what

was the language spoken by the Atlantean Aeolians?  History cannot

answer us.  Nevertheless, the reader has only to be reminded of some of

the accepted and a few of the as yet unknown facts, to cause the light

to enter any intuitional brain.  It is now proved that man was

universally conceived in antiquity as born of the earth.  Such is now

the profane explanation of the term autochthones.  In nearly every

vulgarized popular fable, from the Sanskrit Arya "born of the earth," or

Lord of the Soil in one sense;  the Erechtheus of the archaic Greeks,

worshiped in the earliest days of the Akropolis and shown by Homer as

"he whom the earth bore" ( Il. ii. 548);  down to Adam fashioned of "red

earth," the genetical story has a deep occult meaning, and an indirect

connection with the origin of man and of the subsequent races.  Thus,

the fables of Helen, the son of Pyrrha the red--the oldest name of

Thessaly;  and of Mannus, the reputed ancestor of the Germans, himself

the son of Tuisco, "the red son of the earth," have not only a direct

bearing upon our Atlantis fable, but they explain moreover the division

of mankind into geological groups as made by the Occultists.  It is only

this, their division, that is able to explain to Western teachers the

apparently strange, if not absurd, coincidence of the Semitic Adam--a

divinely revealed personage--being connected with red earth, in company

with the Aryan Pyrrha, Tuisco, &c.--the mythical heroes of "foolish"

fables.  Nor will that division made by the Eastern Occultists, who call

the 5th race people "the Brown-white," and the 4th race the

"Red-yellow," Root-races--connecting them with geological strata--appear

at all fantastic to those who understood verse iii. 34-9 of the Veda and

its occult meaning, and another verse in which the Dasyus are called

"Yellow."  Hatvi Dasyun pra aryam varanam avat is said of Indra who, by

killing the Dasyus, protected the colour of the Aryans; and again, Indra

"unveiled the light for the Aryas and the Dasyus was left on the left

hand" (ii. III 18).  Let the student of Occultism bear in mind that the

Greek Noah, Deukalion, the husband of Pyrrha, was the reputed son of

Prometheus who robbed Heaven of its fire (i.e., of secret Wisdom "of the

right hand," or occult knowledge);  that Prometheus is the brother of

Atlas; that he is also the son of Asia and of the Titan Iapetus--the

antetype from which the Jews borrowed their Japhet for the exigencies of

their own popular legend to mask its kabalistic, Chaldean meaning;  and

that he is also the antetype of Deukalion. Prometheus is the creator of

man out of earth and water,* who after stealing fire from Olympus--a

mountain in Greece--is chained on a mount in the far-off Caucasus.  From

Olympus to Mount Kazbek there is a considerable distance.  The

Occultists say that while the 4th race was generated and developed on

the Atlantean continent--our Antipodes in a certain sense--the 5th was

generated and developed in Asia.  (The ancient Greek geographer Strabo,

for one, calls by the name of Ariana, the land of the Aryas, the whole

country between the Indian Ocean in the south, the Hindu Kush and

Parapamisis in the north, the Indus on the east, and the Caspian Gates,

Karamania and the mouth of the Persian Gulf, on the west.)  The fable of

Prometheus relates to the extinction of the civilized portions of the

4th race, whom Zeus, in order to create a new race, would destroy

entirely, and Prometheus (who had the sacred fire of knowledge) saved

partially "for future seed."  But the origin of the fable antecedes the

destruction of Poseidonis by more than seventy thousand years, however

incredible it may seem.  The seven great continents of the world, spoken

of in the Vishnu Purana (B. II., cap. 2) include Atlantis, though, of

course, under another name.  Ila and Ira are synonymous Sanskrit terms

(see Amarakosha), and both mean earth or native soil;  and Ilavrita is a

portion of Ila, the central point of India (Jambudvipa), the latter

being itself the centre of the seven great continents before the

submersion of the great continent of Atlantis, of which Poseidonis was

but an insignificant remnant.  And now, while every Brahmin will

understand the meaning, we may help the Europeans with a few more

explanations.

 

--------

* Behold Moses saying that it requires earth and water to make a living

man.

--------

 

If, in that generally tabooed work, "Isis Unveiled," the "English

F.T.S." turns to page 589, vol. I., he may find therein narrated another

old Eastern legend.  An island .... (where now the Gobi desert lies) was

inhabited by the last remnants of the race that preceded ours:  a

handful of  "Adepts"--the "Sons of God," now referred to as the Brahman

Pitris;  called by another yet synonymous name in the Chaldean Kabala.

"Isis Unveiled" may appear very puzzling and contradictory to those who

know nothing of Occult Sciences.  To the Occultist it is correct, and

while perhaps left purposely sinning (for it was the first cautious

attempt to let into the West a faint streak of Eastern esoteric light),

it reveals more facts than were ever given before its appearance.  Let

any one read these pages and he may comprehend. The "six such races" in

Manu refer to the sub-races of the fourth race (p. 590).  In addition to

this the reader must turn to the paper on "The Septenary Principle in

Esotericism" (p. 187 ante), study the list of the "Manus" of our fourth

Round (p. 254), and between this and "Isis" light may, perchance, be

focused.  On pages 590-6 of the work mentioned above, he will find that

Atlantis is mentioned in the "Secret Books of the East" (as yet virgin

of Western spoliating hand) under another name in the sacred hieratic or

sacerdotal language.  And then it will be shown to him that Atlantis was

not merely the name of one island but that of a whole continent, of

whose isles and islets many have to this day survived.  The remotest

ancestors of some of the inhabitants of the now miserable fisherman's

hovel "Aclo" (once Atlan), near the gulf of Uraha, were allied at one

time as closely with the old Greeks and Romans as they were with the

"true inland China-man," mentioned on p. 57 Of "Esoteric Buddhism."

Until the appearance of a map, published at Basle in 1522, wherein the

name of America appears for the first time, the latter was believed to

be part of India;  and strange to him who does not follow the mysterious

working of the human mind and its unconscious approximations to hidden

truths--even the aborigines of the new continent, the Red-skinned

tribes, the "Mongoloids" of Mr. Huxley, were named Indians.  Names now

attributed to chance: elastic word that!  Strange coincidence, indeed,

to him who does not know--science refusing yet to sanction the wild

hypothesis--that there was a time when the Indian peninsula was at one

end of the line, and South America at the other, connected by a belt of

islands and continents.  The India of the prehistoric ages was not only

within the region at the sources of the Oxus and Jaxartes, but there was

even in the days of history, and within its memory, an upper, a lower,

and a western India:  and still earlier it was doubly connected with the

two Americas.  The lands of the ancestors of those whom Ammianus

Marcellinus calls the "Brahmans of Upper India" stretched from Kashmir

far into the (now) deserts of Schamo.  A pedestrian from the north might

then have reached--hardly wetting his feet--the Alaskan Peninsula,

through Manchooria, across the future Gulf of Tartary, the Kurile and

Aleutian Islands;  while another traveler, furnished with a canoe and

starting from the south, could have walked over from Siam, crossed the

Polynesian Islands and trudged into any part of the continent of South

America.  On pp. 592-3 of "Isis," vol. I., the Thevetatas--the evil,

mischievous gods that have survived in the Etruscan Pantheon--are

mentioned, along with the "sons of God" or Brahman Pitris.  The

Involute, the hidden or shrouded gods, the Consentes, Complices, and

Novensiles, are all disguised relics of the Atlanteans;  while the

Etruscan arts of soothsaying their Disciplina revealed by Tages comes

direct and in undisguised form from the Atlantean king Thevetat, the

"invisible" Dragon, whose name survives to this day among the Siamese

and Burmese, as also, in the Jataka allegorical stories of the Buddhists

as the opposing power under the name of Devadat. And Tages was the son

of Thevetat, before he became the grandson of the Etruscan

Jupiter-Tinia.  Have the Western Orientalists tried to find out the

connection between all these Dragons and Serpents;  between the "powers

of Evil" in the cycles of epic legends, the Persian and the Indian, the

Greek and the Jewish; between the contests of Indra and the giant;  the

Aryan Nagas and the Iranian Aji Dahaka;  the Guatemalian Dragon and the

Serpent of Genesis--&c. &c. &c.?  Professor Max Muller discredits the

connection.  So be it.  But the fourth race of men, "men" whose sight

was unlimited and who knew all things at once, the hidden as the

unrevealed, is mentioned in the Popol-Vuh, the sacred books of the

Guatemalians;  and the Babylonian Xisuthrus, the far later Jewish Noah,

the Hindu Vaivaswata, and the Greek Deukalion, are all identical with

the great Father of the Thlinkithians, of Popol-Vuh who, like the rest

of these allegorical (not mythical) Patriarchs, escaped in his turn and

in his days, in a large boat at the time of the last great Deluge--the

submersion of Atlantis.

 

To have been an Indo-Aryan, Vaivaswata had not, of necessity, to meet

with his Saviour (Vishnu, under the form of a fish) within the precincts

of the present India, or even anywhere on the Asian continent;  nor is

it necessary to concede that he was the seventh great Manu himself (see

catalogue of the Manus, in the paper on "The Septenary Principle in

Esotericism" cited above), but simply that the Hindu Noah belonged to

the clan of Vaivaswata and typifies the fifth race.  Now the last of the

Atlantean islands perished some 11,000 years ago;  and the fifth race

headed by the Aryans began its evolution, to the certain knowledge of

the "Adepts" nearer one million than 900,000 years ago.  But the

historian and the anthropologist with their utmost stretch of liberality

are unable to give more than from twenty to one hundred thousand years

for all our human evolution.  Hence we put it to them as a fair

question:  at what point during their own conjectural lakh of years do

they fix the root-germ of the ancestral line of the "old Greeks and

Romans?"  Who were they? What is known or even "conjectured" about their

territorial habitat after the division of the Aryan nations?  And where

were the ancestors of the Semitic and Turanian races?  It is not enough

for purposes of refutation of other peoples' statements to say that the

latter lived separate from the former, and then come to a full stop--a

fresh hiatus in the ethnological history of mankind.  Since Asia is

sometimes called the Cradle of Humanity, and it is an ascertained fact

that Central Asia was likewise the cradle of the Semitic and Turanian

races (for thus it is taught in Genesis), and we find the Turans

agreeably to the theory evolved by the Assyriologists preceding the

Babylonian Semitists, where, at what spot of the globe, did these

Semito-Turanian nations break away from the parent stock, and what has

become of the latter?  It cannot be the small Jewish tribe of

Patriarchs; and unless it can be shown that the garden of Eden was also

on the Oxus or the Euphrates, fenced off from the soil inhabited by the

children of Cain, philologists who undertake to fill in the gaps in

Universal History with their made-up conjectures, may be regarded as

ignorant of this detail as those they would enlighten.

 

Logically, if the ancestors of these various groups had been at that

remote period massed together, then the self-same roots of a parent

common stock would have been equally traceable in their perfected

languages as they are in those of the Judo-Europeans.  And so, since

whichever way one turns, one is met with the same troubled sea of

speculation, margined by the treacherous quicksands of hypothesis, and

every horizon bounded by inferential landmarks inscribed with imaginary

dates.  Again, the "Adepts" ask why should any one be awed into

accepting as final criterion that which passes for science of high

authority in Europe?  For all this is known to the Asiatic scholar--in

every case save the purely mathematical and physical sciences--as little

better than a secret league for mutual support, and, perhaps,

admiration.  He bows with profound respect before the Royal Societies of

Physicists, Chemists, and, to a degree, even of Naturalists.  He refuses

to pay the slightest attention to the merely speculative and conjectural

so-called "sciences" of the modern Physiologist, Ethnologist,

Philologist, &c., and the mob of self-styling Oedipuses to whom it is

not given to unriddle the Sphynx of Nature, and who therefore throttle

her.

 

With an eye to the above, as also with a certain prevision of the

future, the defendants in the cases under examination believe that the

"historical difficulty" with reference to the non-historical statement,

necessitated more than a simple reaffirmation of the fact.  They knew

that with no better claims to a hearing than may be accorded by the

confidence of a few, and in view of the decided antagonism of the many,

it would never do for them to say "we maintain" while Western professors

maintained to the contrary.  For a body of, so to say, unlicensed

preachers and students of unauthorized and unrecognized sciences to

offer to fight an August body of universally recognized oracles, would

be an unprecedented piece of impertinence.  Hence their respective

claims had to be examined on however small a scale to begin with (in

this as in all other cases) on other than psychological grounds.  The

"Adepts" in Occult Arts had better keep silence when confronted with the

"A.C.S.'s"--Adepts in Conjectural Sciences--unless they could show,

partially at least, how weak is the authority of the latter and on what

foundations of shifting sands their scientific dicta are often built.

They may thus make it a thinkable conjecture that the former may be

right after all.  Absolute silence, moreover, as at present advised,

would have been fatal.  Besides risking to be construed into inability

to answer, it might have given rise to new complaints among the faithful

few, and lead to fresh charges of selfishness against the writers.

Therefore have the "Adepts" agreed to smooth in part at least a few of

the most glaring difficulties and showing a highway to avoid them in

future by studying the non-historical but actual, instead of the

historical but mythical, portions of Universal History.  And this they

have achieved, they believe (at any rate with a few of their querists),

by simply showing, or rather reminding them, that since no historical

fact can stand as such against the "assumption" of the "Adepts"--

historians being confessedly ignorant of pre-Roman and Greek origins

beyond the ghostly shadows of the Etruscans and Pelasgians--no real

historical difficulty can be possibly involved in their statement.  From

objectors outside the Society, the writers neither demand nor do they

expect mercy. The "Adept" has no favours to ask at the hands of

conjectural science, nor does he exact from any member of the "London

Lodge" blind faith:  it being his cardinal maxim that faith should only

follow inquiry.  The "Adept" is more than content to be allowed to

remain silent, keeping what he may know to himself, unless worthy

seekers wish to share it.  He has so done for ages, and can do so for a

little longer.  Moreover, he would rather not "arrest attention" or

"command respect" at present.  Thus he leaves his audience to first

verify his statements in every case by the brilliant though rather

wavering light of modern science:  after which his facts may be either

accepted or rejected, at the option of the willing student.  In short,

the "Adept"--if one indeed--has to remain utterly unconcerned with, and

unmoved by, the issue.  He imparts that which it is lawful for him to

give out, and deals but with facts.

 

The philological and archeological "difficulties" next demand attention.

 

 

 

 

Philological and Archeological "Difficulties"

 

 

Two questions are blended into one.  Having shown the reasons why the

Asiatic student is prompted to decline the guidance of Western History,

it remains to explain his contumacious obstinacy in the same direction

with regard to philology and archeology. While expressing the sincerest

admiration for the clever modern methods of reading the past histories

of nations now mostly extinct, and following the progress and evolution

of their respective languages, now dead, the student of Eastern

occultism, and even the profane Hindu scholar acquainted with his

national literature, can hardly be made to share the confidence felt by

Western philologists in these conglutinative methods, when practically

applied to his own country and Sanskrit literature. Three facts, at

least, out of many are well calculated to undermine his faith in these

Western methods:--

 

1. Of some dozens of eminent Orientalists, no two agree, even in their

verbatim translation of Sanskrit texts.  Nor is there more harmony shown

in their interpretation of the possible meaning of doubtful passages.

 

2. Though Numismatics is a less conjectural branch of science, and when

starting from well-established basic dates, so to say, an exact one

(since it can hardly fail to yield correct chronological data, in our

case, namely, Indian antiquities); archeologists have hitherto failed to

obtain any such position. On their own confession, they are hardly

justified in accepting the Samvat and Salivahana eras as their guiding

lights, the real initial points of both being beyond the power of the

European Orientalists to verify;  yet all the same, the respective dates

"of 57 B.C. and 78 A.D." are accepted implicitly, and fanciful ages

thereupon ascribed to archeological remains.

 

3. The greatest authorities upon Indian archeology and architecture--

General Cunningham and Mr. Fergusson--represent in their conclusions the

two opposite poles.  The province of archeology is to provide

trustworthy canons of criticism, and not, it should seem, to perplex or

puzzle.  The Western critic is invited to point to one single relic of

the past in India, whether written record or inscribed or uninscribed

monument, the age of which is not disputed.  No sooner has one

archeologist determined a date--say the first century--than another

tries to pull it forward to the 10th or perhaps the 14th century of the

Christian era.  While General Cunningham ascribes the construction of

the present Buddha Gaya temple to the 1st century after Christ--the

opinion of Mr. Fergusson is that its external form belongs to the 14th

century;  and so the unfortunate outsider is as wise as ever.  Noticing

this discrepancy in a "Report on the Archeological Survey of India"

(vol. viii. p. 60), the conscientious and capable Buddha-Gaya Chief

Engineer, Mr. J.D. Beglar, observes that "notwithstanding his

(Fergusson's) high authority, this opinion must be unhesitatingly set

aside," and forthwith assigns the building under notice to the 6th

century.  While the conjectures of one archeologist are termed by

another "hopelessly wrong," the identifications of Buddhist relics by

this other are in their turn denounced as "quite untenable."  And so in

the case of every relic of whatever age.

 

When the "recognized" authorities agree--among themselves at least--then

will it be time to show them collectively in the wrong.  Until then,

since their respective conjectures can lay no claim to the character of

history, the "Adepts" have neither the leisure nor the disposition to

leave weightier business to combat empty speculations, in number as many

as there are pretended authorities.  Let the blind lead the blind, if

they will not accept the light.*

 

--------

* However, it will be shown elsewhere that General Cunningham's latest

conclusions about the date of Buddha's death are not all supported by

the inscriptions newly discovered.--T. Subba Row.

---------

 

As in the "historical," so in this new "archeological difficulty,"

namely, the apparent anachronism as to the date of our Lord's birth, the

point at issue is again concerned with the "old Greeks and Romans."

Less ancient than our Atlantean friends, they seem more dangerous

inasmuch as they have become the direct allies of philologists in our

dispute over Buddhist annals.  We are notified by Prof. Max Muller, by

sympathy the most fair of Sanskritists as well as the most learned--and

with whom, for a wonder, most of his rivals are found siding in this

particular question--that "everything in Indian chronology depends on

the date of Chandragupta,"--the Greek Sandracottus. "Either of these

dates (in the Chinese and Ceylonese chronology) is impossible, because

it does not agree with the chronology of Greece." ("Hist. of the Sans.

Lit.," p. 275.)  It is then by the clear light of this new Alexandrian

Pharos shed, upon a few synchronisms casually furnished by the Greek and

Roman classical writers, that the "extraordinary" statements of the

"Adepts" have now to be cautiously examined.  For Western Orientalists

the historical existence of Buddhism begins with Asoka, though, even

with the help of Greek spectacles, they are unable to see beyond

Chandragupta.  Therefore, "before that time Buddhist chronology is

traditional and full of absurdities."  Furthermore, nothing is said in

the Brahmanas of the Bauddhas--ergo, there were none before

"Sandracottus," nor have the Buddhists or Brahmans any right to a

history of their own, save the one evoluted by the Western mind.  As

though the Muse of History had turned her back while events were gliding

by, the "historian" confesses his inability to close the immense lacunae

between the Indo-Aryan supposed immigration en masse across the Hindoo

Kush, and the reign of Asoka.  Having nothing more solid, he uses

contradictory inferences and speculations.  But the Asiatic occultists,

whose forefathers had her tablets in their keeping, and even some

learned native Pundits--believe they can.  The claim, however, is

pronounced unworthy of attention.  Of the late Smriti (traditional

history) which, for those who know how to interpret its allegories, is

full of unimpeachable historical records, an Ariadne's thread through

the tortuous labyrinth of the Past--has come to be unanimously regarded

as a tissue of exaggerations, monstrous fables, "clumsy forgeries of the

first centuries A.D." It is now openly declared as worthless not only

for exact chronological but even for general historical purposes.  Thus

by dint of arbitrary condemnations, based on absurd interpretations (too

often the direct outcome of sectarian prejudice), the Orientalist has

raised himself to the eminence of a philological mantic.  His learned

vagaries are fast superseding, even in the minds of many a Europeanized

Hindu, the important historical facts that lie concealed under the

exoteric phraseology of the Puranas and other Smritic literature.  At

the outset, therefore, the Eastern Initiate declares the evidence of

those Orientalists who, abusing their unmerited authority, play ducks

and drakes with his most sacred relics, ruled out of court;  and before

giving his facts he would suggest to the learned European Sanskritist

and archeologist that, in the matter of chronology, the difference in

the sum of their series of conjectural historical events, proves them to

be mistaken from A to Z.  They know that one single wrong figure in an

arithmetical progression will always throw the whole calculation into

inextricable confusion:  the multiplication yielding, generally, in such

a case, instead of the correct sum something entirely unexpected. A fair

proof of this may, perhaps, be found in something already alluded to--

namely, the adoption of the dates of certain Hindu eras as the basis of

their chronological assumptions.  In assigning a date to text or

monument they have, of course, to be guided by one of the pre-Christian

Indian eras, whether inferentially, or otherwise.  And yet--in one case,

at least--they complain repeatedly that they are utterly ignorant as to

the correct starting-point of the most important of these.  The positive

date of Vikramaditya, for instance, whose reign forms the starting point

of the Samvat era, is in reality unknown to them.  With some,

Vikramaditya flourished "B.C." 56;  with others, 86;  with others again,

in the 6th century of the Christian era;  while Mr. Fergusson will not

allow the Samvat era any beginning before the "10th century A.D."  In

short, and in the words of Dr. Weber,* they "have absolutely no

authentic evidence to show whether the era of Vikramaditya dates from

the year of his birth, from some achievement, or from the year of his

death, or whether, in fine, it may not have been simply introduced by

him for astronomical reasons."  There were several Vikramadityas and

Vikramas in Indian history, for it is not a name, but an honorary title,

as the Orientalists have now come to learn.  How then can any

chronological deduction from such a shifting premise be anything but

untrustworthy, especially when, as in the instance of the Samvat, the

basic date is made to travel along, at the personal fancy of

Orientalists, between the 1st and the 10th century?

 

-----------

* "The History of Indian Literature," Trubner's Series, 1882, p. 202.

-----------

 

Thus it appears to be pretty well proved that in ascribing chronological

dates to Indian antiquities, Anglo-Indian as well as European

archeologists are often guilty of the most ridiculous anachronisms.

That, in fine, they have been hitherto furnishing History with an

arithmetical mean, while ignorant, in nearly every case, of its first

term!  Nevertheless, the Asiatic student is invited to verify and

correct his dates by the flickering light of this chronological

will-o-the-wisp.  Nay, nay.  Surely "An English F.T.S." would never

expect us in matters demanding the minutest exactness to trust to such

Western beacons!  And he will, perhaps, permit us to hold to our own

views, since we know that our dates are neither conjectural nor liable

to modifications.  Where even such veteran archeologists as General

Cunningham do not seem above suspicion, and are openly denounced by

their colleagues, palaeography seems to hardly deserve the name of exact

science.  This busy antiquarian has been repeatedly denounced by Prof.

Weber and others for his indiscriminate acceptance of that Samvat era.

Nor have the other Orientalists been more lenient;  especially those

who, perchance under the inspiration of early sympathies for biblical

chronology, prefer in matters connected with Indian dates to give head

to their own emotional but unscientific intuitions.  Some would have us

believe that the Samvat era "is not demonstrable for times anteceding

the Christian era at all."  Kern makes efforts to prove that the Indian

astronomers began to employ this era "only after the year of grace

1000."  Prof. Weber, referring sarcastically to General Cunningham,

observes that "others, on the contrary, have no hesitation in at once

referring, wherever possible, every Samvat or Samvatsare-dated

inscription to the Samvat era."  Thus, e.g., Cunningham (in his "Arch.

Survey of India," iii. 31, 39) directly assigns an inscription dated

Samvat 5 to the year "B.C. 52," &c., and winds up the statement with the

following plaint:  "For the present, therefore, unfortunately, where

there is nothing else (but that unknown era) to guide us, it must

generally remain an open question, which era we have to do with in a

particular inscription, and what date consequently the inscription

bears." *

 

--------

* Op. cit., p. 203.

--------

 

The confession is significant.  It is pleasant to find such a ring of

sincerity in a European Orientalist, though it does seem quite ominous

for Indian archeology.  The initiated Brahmans know the positive dates

of their eras and remain therefore unconcerned.  What the "Adepts" have

once said, they maintain; and no new discoveries or modified conjectures

of accepted authorities can exert any pressure upon their data.  Even if

Western archeologists or numismatists took it into their heads to change

the date of our Lord and Glorified Deliverer from the 7th century "B.C."

to the 7th century "A.D.," we would but the more admire such a

remarkable gift for knocking about dates and eras, as though they were

so many lawn-tennis balls.

 

Meanwhile, to all sincere and inquiring Theosophists, we will say

plainly, it is useless for any one to speculate about the date of our

Lord Sanggyas's birth, while rejecting a priori all the Brahmanical,

Ceylonese, Chinese, and Tibetan dates.  The pretext that these do not

agree with the chronology of a handful of Greeks who visited the country

300 years after the event in question, is too fallacious and bold.

Greece was never concerned with Buddhism, and besides the fact that the

classics furnish their few synchronistic dates simply upon the hearsay

of their respective authors--a few Greeks, who themselves lived

centuries before the writers quoted--their chronology is itself too

defective, and their historical records, when it was a question of

national triumphs, too bombastic and often too diametrically opposed to

fact, to inspire with confidence any one less prejudiced than the

average European Orientalist.  To seek to establish the true dates in

Indian history by connecting its events with the mythical "invasion,"

while confessing that "one would look in vain in the literature of the

Brahmans or Buddhists for any allusion to Alexander's conquest, and

although it is impossible to identify any of the historical events

related by Alexander's companions with the historical tradition of

India," amounts to something more than a mere exhibition of incompetence

in this direction:  were not Prof. Max Muller the party concerned--we

might say that it appears almost like predetermined dishonesty.

 

These are harsh words to say, and calculated no doubt to shock many a

European mind trained to look up to what is termed "scientific

authority" with a feeling akin to that of the savage for his family

fetich.  They are well deserved, nevertheless, as a few examples will

show.  To such intellects as Prof. Weber's--whom we take as the leader

of the German Orientalists of the type of Christophiles--certainly the

word "obtuseness" cannot be applied.  Upon seeing how chronology is

deliberately and maliciously perverted in favour of "Greek influence,"

Christian interests and his own predetermined theories--another, and

even a stronger term should be applied.  What expression is too severe

to signify one's feelings upon reading such an unwitting confession of

disingenuous scholarship as Weber repeatedly makes ("Hist. Ind. Lit.")

when urging the necessity of admitting that a passage "has been touched

up by later interpellation," or forcing fanciful chronological places

for texts admittedly very ancient--"as otherwise the dates would be

brought down too far or too near!"  And this is the keynote of his

entire policy:  fiat hypothesis, ruat caelum!  On the other hand Prof.

Max Muller, enthusiastic Indophile as he seems, crams centuries into his

chronological thimble without the smallest apparent compunction....

 

These two Orientalists are instances, because they are accepted beacons

of philology and Indian paleography.  Our national monuments are dated

and our ancestral history perverted to suit their opinions;  the

pernicious evil has ensued, that as a result History is now recording

for the misguidance of posterity the false annals and distorted facts

which, upon their evidence, will be accepted without appeal as the

outcome of the fairest and ablest critical analysis.  While Prof. Max

Muller will hear of no other than a Greek criterion for Indian

chronology, Prof. Weber (op. cit.) finds Greek influence--his universal

solvent--in the development of India's religion, philosophy, literature,

astronomy, medicine, architecture, &c.  To support this fallacy the most

tortuous sophistry, the most absurd etymological deductions are resorted

to.  If one fact more than another has been set at rest by comparative

mythology, it is that their fundamental religious ideas, and most of

their gods, were derived by the Greeks from religions flourishing in the

north-west of India, the cradle of the main Hellenic stock.  This is now

entirely disregarded, because a disturbing element in the harmony of the

critical spheres.  And though nothing is more reasonable than the

inference that the Grecian astronomical terms were inherited equally

from the parent stock, Prof. Weber would have us believe that "it was

Greek influence that just infused a real life into Indian astronomy" (p.

251).  In fine, the hoary ancestors of the Hindus borrowed their

astronomical terminology and learnt the art of star gazing and even

their zodiac from the Hellenic infant!  This proof engenders another:

the relative antiquity of the astronomical texts shall be henceforth

determined upon the presence or absence in them of asterisms and

zodiacal signs, the former being undisguisedly Greek in their names, the

latter are "designated by their Sanskrit names which are translated from

the Greek" (p. 255).  Thus "Manu's law being unacquainted with the

planets," is considered as more ancient than Yajnavalkya's Code, which

"inculcates their worship," and so on.  But there is still another and a

better test found out by the Sanskritists for determining with

"infallible accuracy" the age of the texts, apart from asterisms and

zodiacal signs any casual mention in them of the name "Yavana," taken in

every instance to designate the "Greeks."  This, apart "from an internal

chronology based on the character of the works themselves, and on the

quotations, &c., therein contained, is the only one possible," we are

told.  As a result the absurd statement that "the Indian astronomers

regularly speak of the Yavanas as their teachers" (p. 252).  Ergo, their

teachers were Greeks.  For with Weber and others "Yavana" and "Greek"

are convertible terms.

 

But it so happens that Yavanacharya was the Indian title of a single

Greek--Pythagoras;  as Sankaracharya was the title of a single Hindu

philosopher;  and the ancient Aryan astronomical writers cited his

opinions to criticize and compare them with the teachings of their own

astronomical science, long before him perfected and derived from their

ancestors.  The honorific title of Acharya (master) was applied to him

as to every other learned astronomer or mystic;  and it certainly did

not mean that Pythagoras or any other Greek "Master" was necessarily the

master of the Brahmans.  The word "Yavana" was a generic term employed

ages before the "Greeks of Alexander" projected "their influence" upon

Jambudvipa, to designate people of a younger race, the word meaning

Yuvan "young," or younger.  They knew of Yavanas of the north, west,

south and east;  and the Greek strangers received this appellation as

the Persians, Indo-Scythians and others had before them.  An exact

parallel is afforded in our present day. To the Tibetans every foreigner

whatsoever is known as a Peling; the Chinese designate Europeans as

"red-haired devils;"  and the Mussalmans call every one outside of Islam

a Kuffir.  The Webers of the future, following the example now set them,

may perhaps, after 10,000 years, affirm, upon the authority of scraps of

Moslem literature then extant, that the Bible was written, and the

English, French, Russians and Germans who possessed and translated or

"invented" it, lived in Kaffiristan shortly before their era under

"Moslem influence."  Because the Yuga Purana of the Gargi Sanhita speaks

of an expedition of the Yavanas "as far as Pataliputra," therefore,

either the Macedonians or the Seleuciae had conquered all India!  But

our Western critic is ignorant, of course, of the fact that Ayodhya or

Saketa of Rama was for two millenniums repelling inroads of various

Mongolian and other Turanian tribes, besides the Indo-Scythians, from

beyond Nepaul and the Himalayas.  Prof. Weber seems finally himself

frightened at the Yavana spectre he has raised, for he

queries:--"Whether by the Yavanas it is really the Greeks who are meant

or possibly merely their Indo-Scythian or other successors, to whom the

name was afterwards transferred."  This wholesome doubt ought to have

modified his dogmatic tone in many other such cases.

 

But, drive out prejudice with a pitch fork it will ever return. The

eminent scholar, though staggered by his own glimpse of the truth,

returns to the charge with new vigour.  We are startled by the fresh

discovery that Asuramaya:*  the earliest astronomer, mentioned

repeatedly in the Indian epics, "is identical with 'Ptolemaios' of the

Greeks."  The reason for it given is, that "this latter name, as we see

from the inscriptions of Piyadasi, became in Indian 'Turamaya,' out of

which the name 'Asuramaya' might very easily grow;  and since, by the

later tradition, this 'Maya' is distinctly assigned to Romaka-pura in

the West."  Had the "Piyadasi inscription" been found on the site of

ancient Babylonia, one might suspect the word "Turamaya" as derived from

"Turanomaya," or rather mania.  Since, however, the Piyadasi

inscriptions belong distinctly to India, and the title was borne but by

two kings--Chandragupta and Dharmasoka--what has "'Ptolemaios' of the

Greeks" to do with "Turamaya" or the latter with "Asuramaya," except,

indeed, to use it as a fresh pretext to drag the Indian astronomer under

the stupefying "Greek influence" of the Upas Tree of Western Philology?

Then we learn that, because "Panini once mentions the Yavanas, i.e.,

.... Greeks, and explains the formation of the word 'Yavanani,' to

which, according to the Varttika, the word lipi, 'writing,' must be

supplied," therefore the word signifies "the writing of the Yavanas" of

the Greeks and none other.  Would the German philologists (who have so

long and so fruitlessly attempted to explain this word) be very much

surprised if told that they are yet as far as possible from the truth?

That--Yavanani does not mean "Greek writing" at all, but any foreign

writing whatsoever? That the absence of the word "writing" in the old

texts, except in connection with the names of foreigners, does not in

the least imply that none but Greek writing was known to them, or that

they had none of their own, being ignorant of the art of reading and

writing until the days of Panini? (theory of Prof. Max Muller). For

Devanagari is as old as the Vedas, and held so sacred that the Brahmans,

first under penalty of death, and later on of eternal ostracism, were

not even allowed to mention it to profane ears, much less to make known

the existence of their secret temple libraries.  So that by the word

Yavanani, "to which, according to the Varttika, the word lipi,

'writing,' must he supplied," the writing of foreigners in general,

whether Phoenician, Roman, or Greek, is always meant.  As to the

preposterous hypothesis of Prof. Max Muller that writing "was not used

for literary purposes in India" before Panini's time (again upon Greek

authority) that matter has been disposed of elsewhere.

 

---------

* Dr. Weber is not probably aware of the fact that this distinguished

astronomer's name was simply Maya;  the prefix "Asura" was often added

to it by ancient Hindu writers to show that he was a Rakshasa.  In the

opinion of the Brahmans he was an "Atlantean" and one of the greatest

astronomers and occultists of the lost Atlantis.

---------

 

Equally unknown are those certain other and most important facts, fable

though they seem.  First, that the Aryan "Great War," the Mahabharata,

and the Trojan War of Homer--both mythical as to personal biographies

and fabulous supernumeraries, yet perfectly historical in the main--

belong to the same cycle of events.  For the occurrences of many

centuries, among them the separation of sundry peoples and races,

erroneously traced to Central Asia alone, were in these immortal epics

compressed within the scope of single dramas made to occupy but a few

years.  Secondly, that in this immense antiquity the forefathers of the

Aryan Greeks and the Aryan Brahmans were as closely united and

intermixed as are now the Aryans and the so-called Dravidians.  Thirdly,

that before the days of the historical Rama, from whom in unbroken

genealogical descent the Oodeypore sovereigns trace their lineage,

Rajpootana was as full of direct post-Atlantean "Greeks," as the

post-Trojan, subjacent Cumaea and other settlements of pre-Magna Graecia

were of the fast Hellenizing sires of the modern Rajpoot.  One

acquainted with the real meaning of the ancient epics cannot refrain

from asking himself whether these intuitional Orientalists prefer being

called deceivers or deceived, and in charity give them the benefit of

the doubt.*

 

---------

* Further on, Prof. Weber indulges in the following piece of

chronological sleight of hand.  In his arduous endeavour "to determine

accurately" the place in history of "the Romantic Legend of Sakya

Buddha" (translation by Beale), he thinks "the special points of

relation here found to Christian legends are very striking.  The

question which party was the borrower Deals properly leaves

undetermined.  Yet in all likelihood (!!) we have here simply a similar

case to that of the appropriation of Christian legend by this worshipers

of Krishna" (p. 300).  Now it is this that every Hindu and Buddhist has

the right to brand as "dishonesty," whether conscious or unconscious.

Legends originate earlier than history and die out upon being sifted.

Neither of the fabulous events in connection with Buddha's birth, taken

exoterically, necessitated a great genius to narrate them, nor was the

intellectual capacity of the Hindus ever proved so inferior to that of

the Jewish and Greek mob that they should borrow from them even fables

inspired by religion.  How their fables, evolved between the second and

third centuries after Buddha's death, when the fever of proselytism and

the adoration of his memory were at their height, could be borrowed and

then appropriated from the Christian legends written during the first

century of the Western era, can only be explained by a German

Orientalist.  Mr. T.W. Rhys Davids (Jataka Book) shows the contrary to

have been true.  It may be remarked in this connection that, while the

first "miracles" of both Krishna and Christ are said to have happened at

a Mathura, the latter city exists to this day in India--the antiquity of

its name being fully proved--while the Mathura, or Matures in Egypt, of

the "Gospel of Infancy," where Jesus is alleged to have produced his

first miracle, was sought to be identified, centuries ago, by the stump

of an old tree in thee desert, and is represented by an empty spot!

----------

 

What can be thought of Prof. Weber's endeavour when, "to determine more

accurately the position of Ramayana (called by him the 'artificial

epic') in literary history," he ends with an assumption that "it rests

upon an acquaintance with the Trojan cycle of legend .... the conclusion

there arrived at is that the date of its composition is to be placed at

the commencement of the Christian era in an epoch when the operation of

the Greek influence upon India had already set in!" (p. 194.)  The case

is hopeless.  If the "internal chronology" and external fitness of

things, we may add presented in the triple Indian epic, did not open the

eyes of the hypercritical professors to the many historical facts

enshrined in their striking allegories;  if the significant mention of

"black Yavanas," and "white Yavanas," indicating totally different

peoples, could so completely escape their notice;*  and the enumeration

of a host of tribes, nations, races, clans, under their separate

Sanskrit designations in the Mahbharata, had not stimulated them to try

to trace their ethnic evolution and identify them with their now living

European descendants, there is little to hope from their scholarship

except a mosaic of learned guesswork.  The latter scientific mode of

critical analysis may yet end some day in a consensus of opinion that

Buddhism is due wholesale to the "Life of Barlaam and Josaphat," written

by St. John of Damascus;  or that our religion was plagiarized from that

famous Roman Catholic legend of the eighth century in which our Lord

Gautama is made to figure as a Christian Saint, better still, that the

Vedas were written at Athens under the auspices of St. George, the

tutelary successor of Theseus.

 

---------

* See Twelfth Book of Mahabharata, Krishnas fight with Kalayavana.

---------

 

For fear that anything might be lacking to prove the complete obsession

of Jambudvipa by the demon of  "Greek influence," Dr. Weber vindictively

casts a last insult into the face of India by remarking that if

"European Western steeples owe their origin to an imitation of the

Buddhist topes* .... on the other hand in the most ancient Hindu

edifices the presence of Greek influence is unmistakable" (p. 274).

Well may Dr. Rajendralala Mitra "hold out particularly against the idea

of any Greek influence whatever on the development of Indian

architecture."  If his ancestral literature must be attributed to "Greek

influence," the temples, at least, might have been spared.  One can

understand how the Egyptian Hall in London reflects the influence of the

ruined temples on the Nile;  but it is a more difficult feat, even for a

German professor, to prove the archaic structure of old Aryavarta a

foreshadowing of the genius of the late lamented Sir Christopher Wren!

The outcome of this paleographic spoliation is that there is not a

tittle left for India to call her own. Even medicine is due to the same

Hellenic influence.  We are told--this once by Roth--that "only a

comparison of the principles of Indian with those of Greek medicine can

enable us to judge of the origin, age and value of the former;" .... and

"a propos of Charaka's injunctions as to the duties of the physician to

his patient," adds Dr. Weber, "he cites some remarkably coincident

expressions from the Oath of the Asklepiads."  It is then settled.

India is Hellenized from head to foot, and even had no physic until the

Greek doctors came.

 

----------

* Of Hindu Lingams, rather.

----------

 

 

 

 

Sakya Muni's Place in History

 

 

No Orientalist, save perhaps, the same wise, not to say deep, Prof.

Weber, opposes more vehemently than Prof. Max Muller Hindu and Buddhist

chronology.  Evidently if an Indophile he is not a Buddhophile, and

General Cunningham, however independent otherwise in his archeological

researches, agrees with him more than would seem strictly prudent in

view of possible future discoveries.*  We have then to refute in our

turn this great Oxford professor's speculations.

 

---------

* Notwithstanding Prof. M. Muller's regrettable efforts to invalidate

every Buddhist evidence, he seems to have ill-succeeded in proving his

case, if we can judge from the openly expressed opinion of his own

German confreres.  In the portion headed "Tradition as to Buddha's Age"

(pp. 283-288) in his "Hist. of Ind. Lit.," Prof. Weber very aptly

remarks, "Nothing like positive certainty, therefore, is for the present

attainable. Nor have the subsequent discussions of this topic by Max

Muller (1859) ('Hist. A.S.L.' p. 264 ff), by Westergaard (1860), 'Ueber

Buddha's Todesjahr,' and by 'Kern Over de Jaartelling der Zuidel

Buddhisten' so far yielded any definite results."  Nor are they likely

to.

---------

 

To the evidence furnished by the Puranas and Mahavansa, which he also

finds hopelessly entangled and contradictory (though the perfect

accuracy of that Sinhalese history is most warmly acknowledged by Sir

Emerson Tennant, the historian), he opposes the Greek classics and their

chronology.  With him, it is always "Alexander's invasion" and

"Conquest," and "the ambassador of Seleucus Nicator-Megasthenes," while

even the faintest record of such "conquest" is conspicuously absent from

Brahmanic record; and although in an inscription of Piyadasi are

mentioned the names of Antiochus, Ptolemy, Magus, Antigonus, and even of

the great Alexander himself, as vassals of the king Piyadasi, the

Macedonian is yet called the "Conqueror of India."  In other words,

while any casual mention of Indian affairs by a Greek writer of no great

note must be accepted unchallenged, no record of the Indians, literary

or monumental, is entitled to the smallest consideration.  Until rubbed

against the touch-stone of Hellenic infallibility it must be set down,

in the words of Professor Weber, as "of course mere empty boasting."

Oh, rare Western sense of justice! *

 

----------

* No Philaryan would pretend for a moment on the strength of the

Piyadasi inscriptions that Alexander of Macedonia, or either of the

other sovereigns mentioned, was claimed as an actual "vassal" of

Chandragupta.  They did not even pay tribute, but only a kind of

quit-rent annually for lands ceded in the north:  as the grant-tablets

could show.  But the inscription, however misinterpreted, shows most

clearly that Alexander was never the conqueror of India.

---------

 

Occult records show differently.  They say--challenging proof to the

contrary--that Alexander never penetrated into India farther than

Taxila;  which is not even quite the modern Attock.  The murmuring of

the Macedonian's troops began at the same place, and not as given out,

on the banks of the Hyphasis.  For having never gone to the Hydaspes or

Jhelum, he could not have been on the Sutlej.  Nor did Alexander ever

found satrapies or plant any Greek colonies in the Punjab.  The only

colonies he left behind him that the Brahmans ever knew of, amounted to

a few dozens of disabled soldiers, scattered hither and thither on the

frontiers; who with their native raped wives settled around the deserts

of Karmania and Drangaria--the then natural boundaries of India. And

unless history regards as colonists the many thousands of dead men and

those who settled for ever under the hot sands of Gedrosia, there were

no other, save in the fertile imagination of the Greek historians.  The

boasted "invasion of India" was confined to the regions between Karmania

and Attock, east and west;  and Beloochistan and the Hindu Kush, south

and north: countries which were all India for the Greek of those days.

His building a fleet on the Hydaspes is a fiction;  and his "victorious

march through the fighting armies of India," another. However, it is not

with the "world conqueror" that we have now to deal, but rather with the

supposed accuracy and even casual veracity of his captains and

countrymen, whose hazy reminiscences on the testimony of the classical

writers have now been raised to unimpeachable evidence in everything

that may affect the chronology of early Buddhism and India.

 

Foremost among the evidence of classical writers, that of Flavius

Arrianus is brought forward against the Buddhist and Chinese

chronologies.  No one should impeach the personal testimony of this

conscientious author had he been himself an eye-witness instead of

Megasthenes.  But when a man comes to know that he wrote his accounts

upon the now lost works of Aristobulus and Ptolemy;  and that the latter

described their data from texts prepared by authors who had never set

their eyes upon one line written by either Megasthenes or Nearchus

himself;  and that knowing so much one is informed by Western historians

that among the works of Arrian, Book VII. of the "Anabasis of

Alexander," is "the chief authority on the subject of the Indian

invasion--a book unfortunately with a gap in its twelfth chapter"--one

may well conceive upon what a broken reed Western authority leans for

its Indian chronology.  Arrian lived over 600 years after Buddha's

death;  Strabo, 500 (55 "B.C.");  Diodorus Siculus--quite a trustworthy

compiler!--about the first century; Plutarch over 700 anno Buddhae, and

Quintus Curtius over 1,000 years!  And when, to crown this army of

witnesses against the Buddhist annals, the reader is informed by our

Olympian critics that the works of the last-named author--than whom no

more blundering (geographically, chronologically, and historically)

writer ever lived--form along with the Greek history of Arrian the most

valuable source of information respecting the military career of

Alexander the Great--then the only wonder is that the great conqueror

was not made by his biographers to have--Leonidas-like--defended the

Thermopylean passes in the Hindu Kush against the invasion of the first

Vedic Brahmins "from the Oxus." Withal the Buddhist dates are either

rejected or only accepted pro tempore.  Well may the Hindu resent the

preference shown to the testimony of Greeks--of whom some, at least, are

better remembered in Indian history as the importers into Jambudvipa of

every Greek and Roman vice known and unknown to their day--against his

own national records and history.  "Greek influence" was felt, indeed,

in India, in this, and only in this, one particular.  Greek damsels

mentioned as an article of great traffic for India--Persian and Greek

Yavanis--were the fore-mothers of the modern nautch-girls, who had till

then remained pure virgins of the inner temples.  Alliances with the

Autiochuses and the Seleucus Nicators bore no better fruit than the

rotten apple of Sodom.  Pataliputra, as prophesied by Gautama Buddha,

found its fate in the waters of the Ganges, having been twice before

nearly destroyed, again like Sodom, by the fire of heaven.

 

Reverting to the main subject, the "contradictions" between the

Ceylonese and Chino-Tibetan chronologies actually prove nothing. If the

Chinese annalists of Saul in accepting the prophecy of our Lord that "a

thousand years after He had reached Nirvana, His doctrines would reach

the north" fell into the mistake of applying it to China, whereas Tibet

was meant, the error was corrected after the eleventh century of the

Tzina era in most of the temple chronologies.  Besides which, it may now

refer to other events relating to Buddhism, of which Europe knows

nothing, China or Tzina dates its present name only from the year 296 of

the Buddhist era* (vulgar chronology having assumed it from the first

Hoang of the Tzin dynasty):  therefore the Tathagata could not have

indicated it by this name in his well-known prophecy. If misunderstood

even by several of the Buddhist commentators, it is yet preserved in its

true sense by his own immediate Arhats. The Glorified One meant the

country that stretches far off from the Lake Mansorowara;  far beyond

that region of the Himavat, where dwelt from time immemorial the great

"teachers of the Snowy Range."  These were the great Sraman-acharyas who

preceded Him, and were His teachers, their humble successors trying to

this day to perpetuate their and His doctrines.  The prophecy came out

true to the very day, and it is corroborated both by the mathematical

and historical chronology of Tibet--quite as accurate as that of the

Chinese.  Arhat Kasyapa, of the dynasty of Moryas, founded by one of the

Chandraguptas near Ptaliputra, left the convent of Panch-Kukkutarama, in

consequence of a vision of our Lord, for missionary purpose in the year

683 of the Tzin era (436 Western era) and had reached the great Lake of

Bod-Yul in the same year.  It is at that period that expired the

millennium prophesied.

 

--------

* The reference to Chinahunah (Chinese and Huns) in the Vishma

Parva of the Mahabharata is evidently a later interpolation, as

it does not occur in the old MSS. existing in Southern India.

--------

 

The Arhat carrying with him the fifth statue of Sakya Muni out of the

seven gold statues made after his bodily death by order of the first

Council, planted it in the soil on that very spot where seven years

later was built the first GUNPA (monastery), where the earliest Buddhist

lamas dwelt.  And though the conversion of the whole country did not

take place before the beginning of the seventh century (Western era),

the good law had, nevertheless, reached the North at the time

prophesied, and no earlier.  For, the first of the golden statues had

been plundered from Bhikshu Sali Suka by the Hiong-un robbers and

melted, during the days of Dharmasoka, who had sent missionaries beyond

Nepaul.  The second had a like fate, at Ghar-zha, even before it had

reached the boundaries of Bod-Yul.  The third was rescued from a

barbarous tribe of Bhons by a Chinese military chief who had pursued

them into the deserts of Schamo about 423 Buddhist era (120 "B.C.") The

fourth was sunk in the third century of the Christian era, together

with the ship that carried it from Magadha toward the hills of

Ghangs-chhen-dzo-nga (Chitagong).  The fifth arriving in the nick of

time reached its destination with Arhat Kasyapa.  So did the last two.*

 

---------

* No doubt, since the history of these seven statues is not in the hands

of the Orientalists, it will be treated as a "groundless fable."

Nevertheless such is their origin and history.  They date from the first

Synod, that of Rajagriha, held in the season of war following the death

of Buddha, i.e., one year after his death.  Were this Rajagriha Council

held 100 years after, as maintained by some, it could not have been

presided over by Mahakasyapa, the friend and brother Arhat of Sakyamuni,

as he would have been 200 years old.  The second Council or Synod, that

of Vaisali, was held 120, not 100 or 110 years as some would have it,

after the Nirvana, for the latter took place at a time a little over 20

years before the physical death of Tathagata.  It was held at the great

Saptapana cave (Mahavansa's Sattapanni), near the Mount Baibhar (the

Webhara of the Pali Manuscripts), that was in Rajagriha, the old capital

of Magadha. Memoirs exist, containing the record of his daily life, made

by the nephew of king Ajatasatru, a favourite Bikshu of the Mahacharya.

These texts have ever been in the possession of the superiors of the

first Lamasery built by Arhat Kasyapa in Bod-Yul, most of whose Chohans

were the descendants of the dynasty of the Moryas, there being up to

this day three of the members of this once royal family living in India.

The old text in question is a document written in Anudruta Magadha

characters.  (We deny that these or any other characters--whether

Devanagari, Pali, or Dravidian--ever used in India, are variations of,

or derivatives from, the Phoenician.)  To revert to the texts it is

therein stated that the Sattapanni cave, then called "Sarasvati" and

"Bamboo-cave," got its latter name in this wise.  When our Lord first

sat in it for Dhyana, it was a large six-chambered natural cave, 50 to

60 feet wide by 33 deep.   One day, while teaching the mendicants

outside, our Lord compared man to a Saptaparna (seven-leaved) plant,

showing them how after the loss of its first leaf every other could be

easily detached, but the seventh leaf--directly connected with the stem.

"Mendicants," he said, "there are seven Buddhas in every Buddha, and

there are six Bikshus and but one Buddha in each mendicant.  What are

the seven?  The seven branches of complete knowledge.  What are the six?

The six organs of sense.  What are the five?  The five elements of

illusive being.  And the ONE which is also ten?  He is a true Buddha who

develops in him the ten forms of holiness and subjects them all to the

one--'the silent voice' (meaning Avolokiteswara).  After that, causing

the rock to be moved at His command, the Tathagata made it divide itself

into a seventh additional chamber, remarking that a rock too was

septenary, and had seven stages of development.  From that time it was

called the Sattapanni or the Saptaparna cave.  After the first Synod was

held, seven gold statues of the Bhagavat were cast by order of the king,

and each of them was placed in one of the seven compartments."  These in

after times, when the good law had to make room to more congenial

because more sensual creeds, were taken in charge by various Viharas and

then disposed of as explained.  Thus when Mr. Turnour states on the

authority of the sacred traditions of Southern Buddhists that the cave

received its name from the Sattapanni plant, he states what is correct.

In the "Archeological Survey of India," we find that Gen. Cunningham

identifies this cave with one not far away from it and in the same

Baihbar range, but which is most decidedly not our Saptaparna cave.  At

the same time the Chief Engineer of Buddha Gaya, Mr. Beglar, describing

the Chetu cave, mentioned by Fa-hian, thinks it is the Saptaparna cave,

and he is right.  For that, as well as the Pippal and the other caves

mentioned in our texts, are too sacred in their associations--both

having been used for centuries by generations of Bhikkhus, unto the very

time of their leaving India--to have their sites so easily forgotten.

---------

 

On the other hand, the Southern Buddhists, headed by the Ceylonese, open

their annals with the following event:--

 

They claim according to their native chronology that Vijaya, the son of

Sinhabahu, the sovereign of Lala, a small kingdom or Raj on the Gandaki

river in Magadha, was exiled by his father for acts of turbulence and

immorality.  Sent adrift on the ocean with his companions after having

their heads shaved, Buddhist-Bhikshu fashion, as a sign of penitence, he

was carried to the shores of Lanka.  Once landed, he and his companions

conquered and easily took possession of an island inhabited by

uncivilized tribes, generically called the Yakshas.  This--at whatever

epoch and year it may have happened--is an historical fact, and the

Ceylonese records, independent of Buddhist chronology, give it out as

having taken place 382 years before Dushtagamani (i.e., in 543 before

the Christian era).  Now, the Buddhist Sacred Annals record certain

words of our Lord pronounced by Him shortly before His death.  In

Mahavansa He is made to have addressed them to Sakra, in the midst of a

great assembly of Devatas (Dhyan Chohans), and while already "in the

exalted unchangeable Nirvana, seated on the throne on which Nirvana is

achieved."  In our texts Tathagata addresses them to his assembled

Arhats and Bhikkhuts a few days before his final liberation:--"One

Vijaya, the son of Sinhabahu, king of the land of Lala, together with

700 attendants, has just landed on Lanka.  Lord of Dhyan Buddhas

(Devas)! my doctrine will be established on Lanka.  Protect him and

Lanka!"  This is the sentence pronounced which, as proved later, was a

prophecy.  The now familiar phenomenon of clairvoyant prevision, amply

furnishing a natural explanation of the prophetic utterance without any

unscientific theory of miracle, the laugh of certain Orientalists seems

uncalled for. Such parallels of poetico-religious embellishments as

found in Mahavansa exist in the written records of every religion--as

much in Christianity as anywhere else.  An unbiased mind would first

endeavour to reach the correct and very superficially hidden meaning

before throwing ridicule and contemptuous discredit upon them.

Moreover, the Tibetans possess a more sober record of this prophecy in

the Notes, already alluded to, reverentially taken down by King

Ajatasatru's nephew.  They are, as said above, in the possession of the

Lamas of the convent built by Arhat Kasyapa--the Moryas and their

descendants being of a more direct descent than the Rajput Gautamas, the

Chiefs of Nagara--the village identified with Kapilavastu--are the best

entitled of all to their possession.  And we know they are historical to

a word. For the Esoteric Buddhist they yet vibrate in space;  and these

prophetic words, together with the true picture of the Sugata who

pronounced them, are present in the aura of every atom of His relics.

This, we hasten to say, is no proof but for the psychologist.  But there

is other and historical evidence: the cumulative testimony of our

religious chronicles.  The philologist has not seen these;  but this is

no proof of their non-existence.

 

The mistake of the Southern Buddhists lies in dating the Nirvana of

Sanggyas Pan-chhen from the actual day of his death, whereas, as above

stated, He had reached it over twenty years previous to his

disincarnation.  Chronologically, the Southerners are right, both in

dating His death in 543 "B.C.," and one of the great Councils at 100

years after the latter event.  But the Tibetan Chohans, who possess all

the documents relating to the last twenty-four years of His external and

internal life--of which no philologist knows anything--can show that

there is no real discrepancy between the Tibetan and the Ceylonese

chronologies as stated by the Western Orientalists.*  For the profane,

the Exalted One was born in the sixty-eighth year of the Burmese

Eeatzana era, established by Eeatzana (Anjana), King of Dewaha; for the

initiated--in the forty-eighth year of that era, on a Friday of the

waxing moon, of May.  And it was in 563 before the Christian chronology

that Tathagata reached his full Nirvana, dying, as correctly stated by

Mahavana--in 543, on the very day when Vijaya landed with his companions

in Ceylon--as prophesied by Loka-ratha, our Buddha.

 

---------

* Bishop Bigandet, after examining all the Burmese authorities

accessible to him, frankly confesses that "the history of Buddha offers

an almost complete blank as to what regards his doings and preachings

during a period of nearly twenty-three years." (Vol. I. p. 260.)

---------

 

Professor Max Muller seems to greatly scoff at this prophecy. In his

chapter ("Hist. S. L.") upon Buddhism (the "false" religion), the

eminent scholar speaks as though he resented such an unprecedented

claim.  "We are asked to believe"--he writes--"that the Ceylonese

historians placed the founder of the Vijyan dynasty of Ceylon in the

year 543 in accordance with their sacred chronology!" (i.e., Buddha's

prophecy), "while we (the philologists) are not told, however, through

what channel the Ceylonese could have received their information as to

the exact date of Buddha's death."  Two points may be noticed in these

sarcastic phrases:  (a) the implication of a false prophecy by our Lord;

and (b) a dishonest tampering with chronological records, reminding one

of those of Eusebius, the famous Bishop of Caesarea, who stands accused

in history of "perverting every Egyptian chronological table for the

sake of synchronisms."  With reference to charge one, he may be asked

why our Sakyasinha's prophecies should not be as much entitled to his

respect as those of his Saviour would be to ours--were we to ever write

the true history of the "Galilean" Arhat.  With regard to charge two,

the distinguished philologist is reminded of the glass house he and all

Christian chronologists are themselves living in.  Their inability to

vindicate the adoption of December 25 as the actual day of the Nativity,

and hence to determine the age and the year of their Avatar's death--

even before their own people--is far greater than is ours to demonstrate

the year of Buddha to other nations.  Their utter failure to establish

on any other but traditional evidence the, to them, historically

unproved, if probable, fact of his existence at all--ought to engender a

fairer spirit.  When Christian historians can, upon undeniable

historical authority, justify biblical and ecclesiastical chronology,

then, perchance, they may be better equipped than at present for the

congenial work of rending heathen chronologies into shreds.

 

The "channel" the Ceylonese received their information through, was two

Bikshus who had left Magadha to follow their disgraced brethren into

exile.  The capacity of Siddhartha Buddha's Arhats for transmitting

intelligence by psychic currents may, perhaps, be conceded without any

great stretch of imagination to have been equal to, if not greater than,

that of the prophet Elijah, who is credited with the power of having

known from any distance all that happened in the king's bed chamber.  No

Orientalist has the right to reject the testimony of other people's

Scriptures, while professing belief in the far more contradictory and

entangled evidence of his own upon the self-same theory of proof.  If

Professor Muller is a sceptic at heart, then let him fearlessly declare

himself;  only a sceptic who impartially acts the iconoclast has the

right to assume such a tone of contempt towards any non-Christian

religion.  And for the instruction of the impartial inquirer only, shall

it be thought worth while to collate the evidence afforded by

historical--not psychological--data.  Meanwhile, by analyzing some

objections and exposing the dangerous logic of our critic, we may give

the theosophists a few more facts connected with the subject under

discussion.

 

Now that we have seen Professor Max Muller's opinions in general about

this, so to say, the Prologue to the Buddhist Drama with Vijaya as the

hero--what has he to say as to the details of its plot?  What weapon

does he use to weaken this foundation-stone of a chronology upon which

are built and on which depend all other Buddhist dates?  What is the

fulcrum for the critical lever he uses against the Asiatic records?

Three of his main points may be stated seriatim with answers appended.

He begins by premising that--

 

1st.--"If the starting-point of the Northern Buddhist chronology turns

out to be merely hypothetical, based as it is on a prophecy of Buddha,

it will be difficult to avoid the same conclusion with regard to the

date assigned to Buddha's death by the Buddhists of Ceylon and of

Burmah" (p. 266).  "The Mahavansa begins with relating three miraculous

visits which Buddha paid to Ceylon." Vijaya, the name of the founder of

the first dynasty (in Ceylon), means conquest, "and, therefore, such a

person most likely never existed" (p. 268).  This he believes

invalidates the whole Buddhist chronology.

 

To which the following pendant may be offered:--

 

William I., King of England, is commonly called the Conqueror; he was,

moreover, the illegitimate son of Robert, Duke of Normandy, surnamed le

Diable.  An opera, we hear, was invented on this subject, and full of

miraculous events, called "Robert the Devil," showing its traditional

character.  Therefore shall we be also justified in saying that Edward

the Confessor, Saxons and all, up to the time of the union of the houses

of York and Lancaster under Henry VII.--the new historical period in

English history--are all "fabulous tradition" and "such a person as

William the Conqueror most likely never existed?"

 

2nd.--In the Chinese chronology--continues the dissecting critic

--"the list of the thirty-three Buddhist patriarchs .... is of a

doubtful character.  For Western history the exact Ceylonese

chronology begins with 161 B.C."  Extending beyond that date there

exists but "a traditional native chronology.  Therefore .... what goes

before .... is but fabulous tradition."

 

The chronology of the Apostles and their existence has never been proved

historically.  The history of the Papacy is confessedly "obscure."

Ennodius of Pavia (fifth century) was the first one to address the Roman

Bishop (Symmochus), who comes fifty-first in the Apostolic succession,

as "Pope."  Thus, if we were to write the history of Christianity, and

indulge in remarks upon its chronology, we might say that since there

were no antecedent Popes, and since the Apostolic line began with

Symmochus (498 A.D.), all Christian records beginning with the Nativity

and up to the sixth century are therefore "fabulous traditions," and all

Christian chronology is "purely hypothetical."

 

3rd.--Two discrepant dates in Buddhist chronology are scornfully pointed

out by the Oxford Professor.  If the landing of Vijaya, in Lanka--he

says--on the same day that Buddha reached Nirvana (died) is in

fulfilment of Buddha's prophecy, then "if Buddha was a true prophet, the

Ceylonese argue quite rightly that he must have died in the year of the

conquest, or 543 B.C." (p. 270).  On the other hand, the Chinese have a

Buddhist chronology of their own;  and it does not agree with the

Ceylonese.  "The lifetime of Buddha from 1029 to 950 rests on his own

prophecy that a millennium would elapse from his death to the conversion

of China.  If, therefore, Buddha was a true prophet, he must have lived

about 1000 B.C." (p. 266).  But the date does not agree with the

Ceylonese chronology--ergo, Buddha was a false prophet. As to that other

"the first and most important link" in the Ceylonese as well as in the

Chinese chronology, "it is extremely weak." .... In the Ceylonese "a

miraculous genealogy had to be provided for Vijaya," and, "a prophecy

was therefore invented" (p. 269).

 

On these same lines of argument it may be argued that:

 

Since no genealogy of Jesus, "exact or inexact," is found in any of the

world's records save those entitled the Gospels of SS. Mathew (I--1-17),

and Luke (iii. 23--38);  and, since these radically disagree--although

this personage is the most conspicuous in Western history, and the

nicest accuracy might have been expected in his case;  therefore,

agreeably with Professor Max Muller's sarcastic logic, if Jesus "was a

true prophet," he must have descended from David through Joseph

(Matthew's Gospel);  and "if he was a true prophet," again, then the

Christians "argue quite rightly that he must have" descended from David

through Mary (Luke's Gospel).  Furthermore, since the two genealogies

are obviously discrepant and prophecies were, in this instance, truly

"invented" by the post-apostolic theologians [or, if preferred, old

prophecies of Isaiah and other Old Testament prophets, irrelevant to

Jesus, were adapted to suit his case--as recent English commentators (in

Holy Orders), the Bible revisers, now concede];  and since, moreover--

always following the Professor's argument, in the cases of Buddhist and

Brahmanical chronologies--Biblical chronology and genealogy are found to

be "traditional and full of absurdities .... every attempt to bring them

into harmony having proved a failure." (p. 266):  have we or have we not

a certain right to retort, that if Gautama Buddha is shown on these

lines a false prophet, then Jesus must be likewise "a false prophet?"

And if Jesus was a true prophet despite existing confusion of

authorities, why on the same lines may not Buddha have been one?

Discredit the Buddhist prophecies and the Christian ones must go along

with them.

 

The utterances of the ancient pythoness now but provoke the scientific

smile:  but no tripod ever mounted by the prophetess of old was so shaky

as the chronological trinity of points upon which this Orientalist

stands to deliver his oracles.  Moreover, his arguments are

double-edged, as shown.  If the citadel of Buddhism can be undermined

by Professor Max Muller's critical engineering, then pari passu that of

Christianity must crumble in the same ruins.  Or have the Christians

alone the monopoly of absurd religious "inventions" and the right of

being jealous of any infringement of their patent rights?

 

To conclude, we say, that the year of Buddha's death is correctly stated

by Mr. Sinnett, "Esoteric Buddhism" having to give its chronological

dates according to esoteric reckoning.  And this reckoning would alone,

if explained, make away with every objection urged, from Professor Max

Muller's "Sanskrit Literature" down to the latest "evidence"--the proofs

in the "Reports of the Archeological Survey of India."  The Ceylonese

era, as given in Mahavansa, is correct in everything, withholding but

the above given fact of Nirvana, the great mystery of Samma-Sambuddha

and Abhidina remaining to this day unknown to the outsider;  and though

certainly known to Bikshu Mahanama--King Dhatusena's uncle--it could not

be explained in a work like the Mahavansa.  Moreover, the Singhalese

chronology agrees in every particular with the Burmese chronology.

Independent of the religious era dating from Buddha's death, called

"Nirvanic Era," there existed, as now shown by Bishop Bigandet ("Life of

Guadama"), two historical eras.  One lasted 1362 years, its last year

corresponding with 1156 of the Christian era:  the other, broken in two

small eras, the last, succeeding immediately the other, exists to the

present day.  The beginning of the first, which lasted 562 years,

coincides with the year 79 A.D. and the Indian Saka era.  Consequently,

the learned Bishop, who surely can never be suspected of partiality to

Buddhism, accepts the year 543 of Buddha's Nirvana.  So do Mr. Tumour,

Professor Lassen, and others.

 

The alleged discrepancies between the fourteen various dates of Nirvana

collected by Csoma Corosi, do not relate to the Nyr-Nyang in the least.

They are calculations concerning the Nirvana of the precursors, the

Boddhisatwas and previous incarnations of Sanggyas that the Hungarian

found in various works and wrongly applied to the last Buddha.

Europeans must not forget that this enthusiast acted under protest of

the Lamas during the time of his stay with them:  and that, moreover, he

had learned more about the doctrines of the heretical Dugpas than of the

orthodox Gelugpas.  The statement of this "great authority (!) on

Tibetan Buddhism," as he is called, to the effect that Gautama had three

wives whom he names--and then contradicts himself by showing ("Tibetan

Grammar," p. 162, see note) that the first two wives "are one and the

same," shows how little he can be regarded as an "authority."  He had

not even learned that "Gopa, Yasodhara and Utpala Varna" are the three

names for three mystical powers.  So with the "discrepancies" of the

dates.  Out of the sixty-four mentioned by him but two relate to Sakya

Muni--namely, the years 576 and 546--and these two err in their

transcription;  for when corrected they must stand 564 and 543.  As for

the rest they concern the seven ku-sum, or triple form of the Nirvanic

state and their respective duration, and relate to doctrines of which

Orientalists know absolutely nothing.

 

Consequently from the Northern Buddhists, who, as confessed by Professor

Weber, "alone possess these (Buddhist) Scriptures complete," and have

"preserved more authentic information regarding the circumstances of

their redaction"--the Orientalists have up to this time learned next to

nothing.  The Tibetans say that Tathagata became a full Buddha--i.e.,

reached absolute Nirvana--in 2544 of the Kali era (according to

Souramana), and thus lived indeed but eighty years, as no Nirvanee of

the seventh degree can be reckoned among the living (i.e., existing)

men.  It is no better than loose conjecture to argue that it would have

entered as little into the thoughts of the Brahmans to note the day of

Buddha's birth "as the Romans or even the Jews (would have) thought of

preserving the date of the birth of Jesus before he had become the

founder of a religion." (Max Muller's "Hist. S. L.")  For, while the

Jews had been from the first rejecting the claim of Messiah-ship set up

by the Chelas of the Jewish prophet and were not expecting their Messiah

at that time, the Brahmans (the initiates, at any rate) knew of the

coming of him whom they regarded as an incarnation of Divine wisdom, and

therefore were well aware of the astrological date of his birth.  If, in

after times, in their impotent rage they destroyed every accessible

vestige of the birth, life and death of Him, who in his boundless mercy

to all creatures had revealed their carefully concealed mysteries and

doctrines in order to check the ecclesiastical torrent of ever-growing

superstitions, yet there had been a time when he was met by them as an

Avatar. And, though they destroyed, others preserved.

 

The thousand and one speculations and the torturing of exoteric texts by

Archeologist or Paleographer will ill repay the time lost in their

study.

 

The Indian annals specify King Ajatasatru as a contemporary of Buddha,

and another Ajatasatru helped to prepare the council 100 years after his

death.  These princes were sovereigns of Magadha and have naught to do

with Ajatasatru of the Brihad-Aranyaka and the Kaushitaki-Upanishad, who

was a sovereign of the Kasis; though Bhadrasena, "the son of Ajatasatru"

cursed by Aruni, may have more to do with his namesake the "heir of

Chandragupta" than is generally known, Professor Max Miller objects to

two Asokas. He rejects Kalasoka and accepts but Dharmasoka--in

accordance with "Greek" and in utter conflict with Buddhist chronology.

He knows not--or perhaps prefers to ignore--that besides the two Asokas

there were several personages named Chandragupta and Chandramasa.

Plutarch is set aside as conflicting with the more welcome theory, and

the evidence of Justin alone is accepted. There was Kalasoka, called by

some Chandramasa and by others Chandragupta, whose son Nanda was

succeeded by his cousin the Chandragupta of Seleucus, and under whom the

Council of Vaisali took place "supported by King Nanda" as correctly

stated by Taranatha.  (None of them were Sudras, and this is a pure

invention of the Brahmans.)  Then there was the last of the

Chandraguptas who assumed the name of Vikrama;  he commenced the new era

called the Vikramaditya or Samvat and began the new dynasty at

Pataliputra, 318 (B.C.)--according to some European "authorities;" after

him his son Bindusara or Bhadrasena--also Chandragupta, who was followed

by Dharmasoka Chandragupta.  And there were two Piyadasis--the

"Sandracottus" Chandragupta and Asoka.  And if controverted, the

Orientalists will have to account for this strange inconsistency.  If

Asoka was the only "Piyadasi" and the builder of the monuments, and

maker of the rock-inscriptions of this name;  and if his inauguration

occurred as conjectured by Professor Max Muller about 259 B.C., in other

words, if he reigned sixty or seventy years later than any of the Greek

kings named on the Piyadasian monuments, what had he to do with their

vassalage or non-vassalage, or how was he concerned with them at all?

Their dealings had been with his grandfather some seventy years

earlier--if he became a Buddhist only after ten years occupancy of the

throne.  And finally, three well-known Bhadrasenas can be proved, whose

names spelt loosely and phonetically, according to each writer's dialect

and nationality, now yield a variety of names, from Bindusara,

Bimbisara, and Vindusara, down to Bhadrasena and Bhadrasara, as he is

called in the Vayu Purana.  These are all synonymous.  However easy, at

first sight, it may seem to be to brush out of history a real personage,

it becomes more difficult to prove the non-existence of Kalasoka by

calling him "false," while the second Asoka is termed "the real," in the

face of the evidence of the Puranas, written by the bitterest enemies of

the Buddhists, the Brahmans of the period.  The Vayu and Matsya Puranas

mention both in their lists of their reigning sovereigns of the Nanda

and the Morya dynasties.  And, though they connect Chandragupta with a

Sudra Nanda, they do not deny existence to Kalasoka, for the sake of

invalidating Buddhist chronology.  However falsified the now extant

texts of both the Vaya and Matsya Puranas, even accepted as they at

present stand "in their true meaning," which Professor Max Muller

(notwithstanding his confidence) fails to seize, they are not "at

variance with Buddhist chronology before Chandragupta."  Not, at any

rate, when the real Chandragupta instead of the false Sandrocottus of

the Greeks is recognized and introduced.  Quite independently of the

Buddhist version, there exists the historical fact recorded in the

Brahmanical as well as in the Burmese and Tibetan versions, that in the

year 63 of Buddha, Susinago of Benares was chosen king by the people of

Pataliputra, who made away with Ajatasatru's dynasty.  Susinago removed

the capital of Magadha from Rajagriha to Vaisali, while his successor

Kalasoka removed it in his turn to Pataliputra.  It was during the reign

of the latter that the prophecy of Buddha concerning Patalibat or

Pataliputra--a small village during His time--was realized.  (See

Mahaparinibbana Sutta).

 

It will be easy enough, when the time comes, to answer all denying

Orientalists and face them with proof and document in hand.  They speak

of the extravagant, wild exaggerations of the Buddhists and Brahmans.

The latter answer:  "The wildest theorists of all are they who, to evade

a self-evident fact, assume moral, anti-national impossibilities,

entirely opposed to the most conspicuous traits of the Brahmanical

Indian character--namely, borrowing from, or imitating in anything,

other nations. From their comments on Rig Veda, down to the annals of

Ceylon, from Panini to Matouan-lin, every page of their learned scholia

appears, to one acquainted with the subject, like a monstrous jumble of

unwarranted and insane speculations.  Therefore, notwithstanding Greek

chronology and Chandragupta--whose date is represented as 'the

sheet-anchor of Indian chronology' that 'nothing will ever shake'--it is

to be feared that as regards India, the chronological ship of the

Sanskritists has already broken from her moorings and gone adrift with

all her precious freight of conjectures and hypotheses.  She is drifting

into danger.  We are at the end of a cycle--geological and other--and at

the beginning of another.  Cataclysm is to follow cataclysm. The pent-up

forces are bursting out in many quarters;  and not only will men be

swallowed up or slain by thousands, 'new' land appear and 'old' subside,

volcanic eruptions and tidal waves appal;  but secrets of an unsuspected

past will be uncovered to the dismay of Western theorists and the

humiliation of an imperious science.  This drifting ship, if watched,

may be seen to ground upon the upheaved vestiges of ancient

civilizations, and fall to pieces.  We are not emulous of the prophet's

honours: but still, let this stand as a prophecy."

 

 

 

 

Inscriptions Discovered by General A. Cunningham

 

 

We have carefully examined the new inscription discovered by General A.

Cunningham on the strength of which the date assigned to Buddha's death

by Buddhist writers has been declared to be incorrect;  and we are of

opinion that the said inscription confirms the truth of the Buddhist

traditions instead of proving them to be erroneous.  The above-mentioned

archeologist writes as follows regarding the inscription under

consideration in the first volume of his reports:--"The most interesting

inscription (at Gaya) is a long and perfect one dated in the era of the

Nirvana or death of Buddha.  I read the date as follows:--Bhagavati

Parinirvritte Samvat 1819 Karttike badi I Budhi--that is, 'in the year

1819 of the Emancipation of Bhagavata on Wednesday, the first day of the

waning moon of Kartik.'  If the era here used is the same as that of the

Buddhists of Ceylon and Burmah, which began in 543 B.C., the date of

this inscription will be 1819--543 = A.D. 1276.  The style of the

letters is in keeping with this date, but is quite incompatible with

that derivable from the Chinese date of the era.  The Chinese place the

death of Buddha upwards of 1000 years before Christ, so that according

to them the date of this inscription would be about A.D. 800, a period

much too early for the style of character used in the inscription.  But

as the day of the week is here fortunately added, the date can be

verified by calculation. According to my calculation, the date of the

inscription corresponds with Wednesday, the 17th of September, AD. 1342.

This would place the Nirvana of Buddha in 477 B.C., which is the very

year that was first proposed by myself as the most probable date of that

event.  This corrected date has since been adopted by Professor Max

Muller."

 

The reasons assigned by some Orientalists for considering this so-called

"corrected date" as the real date of Buddha's death have already been

noticed and criticized in the preceding paper; and now we have only to

consider whether the inscription in question disproves the old date.

 

Major-General Cunningham evidently seems to take it for granted, as far

as his present calculation is concerned, that the number of days in a

year is counted in the Magadha country and by Buddhist writers in

general on the same basis on which the number of days in a current

English year is counted;  and this wrong assumption has vitiated his

calculation and led him to a wrong conclusion.  Three different methods

of calculation were in use in India at the time when Buddha lived, and

they are still in use in different parts of the country.  These methods

are known as Souramanam, Chandrarmanam and Barhaspatyamanam.  According

to the Hindu works on astronomy a Souramanam year consists of 365 days

15 ghadias and 31 vighadias;  a Chandramanam year has 360 days, and a

year on the basis of Barhaspatyamanam has 361 days and 11 ghadias

nearly.  Such being the case, General Cunningham ought to have taken the

trouble of ascertaining before he made his calculation the particular

manam (measure) employed by the writers of Magadha and Ceylon in giving

the date of Buddha's death and the manam used in calculating the years

of the Buddhist era mentioned in the inscription above quoted.  Instead

of placing himself in the position of the writer of the said inscription

and making the required calculation from that standpoint, he made the

calculation on the same basis of which an English gentleman of the

nineteenth century would calculate time according to his own calendar.

 

If the calculation were correctly made, it would have shown him that the

inscription in question is perfectly consistent with the statement that

Buddha died in the year 543 B.C. according to Barhaspatyamanam (the only

manam used in Magadha and by Pali writers in general).  The correctness

of this assertion will be clearly seen on examining the following

calculation.

 

543 years according to Barhaspatyamanam are equivalent to 536 years and

8 months (nearly) according to Souramanam.

 

Similarly, 1819 years according to the former manam are equivalent to

1798 years (nearly) according to the latter manarn.

 

As the Christian era commenced on the 3102nd year of Kaliyuga (according

to Souramanam), Buddha died in the year 2565 of Kaliyuga and the

inscription was written in the year 4362 of Kaliyuga (according to

Souramanam).  And now the question is whether according to the Hindu

almanack, the first day of the waning moon of Kartik coincided with a

Wednesday.

 

According to Suryasiddhanta the number of days from the beginning of

Kaliyuga up to midnight on the 15th day of increasing moon of Aswina is

1,593,072, the number of Adhikamasansas (extra months) during the

interval being 1608 and the number of Kshayathithis 25,323.

 

If we divide this number by 7 the remainder would be 5.  As Kaliyuga

commenced with Friday, the period of time above defined closed with

Tuesday, as according to Suryasiddhanta a weekday is counted from

midnight to midnight.

 

It is to be noticed that in places where Barhaspatyamanam is in use

Krishnapaksham (or the fortnight of waning moon) commences first and is

followed by Suklapaksham (period of waxing moon).

 

Consequently, the next day after the 15th day of the waxing moon of

Aswina will be the 1st day of the waning moon of Kartika to those who

are guided by the Barhaspatyamanam calendar.  And therefore the latter

date, which is the date mentioned in the inscription, was Wednesday in

the year 4362 of Kaliyuga.

 

The geocentric longitude of the sun at the time of his meridian passage

on the said date being 174 deg. 20' 16" and the moon's longitude being

70 deg 51' 42" (according to Suryasiddhanta) it can be easily seen that

at Gaya there was Padyamitithi (first day of waning moon) for nearly 7

ghadias and 50 vighadias from the time of sunrise.

 

It is clear from the foregoing calculation that "Kartik I Badi"

coincided with Wednesday in the year 4362 of Kaliyuga or the year 1261

of the Christian era, and that from the standpoint of the person who

wrote the inscription the said year was the 1819th year of the Buddhist

era.  And consequently this new inscription confirms the correctness of

the date assigned to Buddha's death by Buddhist writers.  It would have

been better if Major-General Cunningham had carefully examined the basis

of his calculation before proclaiming to the world at large that the

Buddhist accounts were untrustworthy.

 

 

 

 

Discrimination of Spirit and Not Spirit

 

(Translated from the original Sanskrit of Sankara Acharya.)

 

by Mohini M. Chatterji

 

 

[An apology is scarcely needed for undertaking a translation of Sankara

Acharya's celebrated Synopsis of Vedantism entitled "Atmanatma Vivekah."

This little treatise, within a small compass, fully sets forth the scope

and purpose of the Vedanta philosophy.  It has been a matter of no

little wonder, considering the authorship of this pamphlet and its own

intrinsic merits, that a translation of it has not already been executed

by some competent scholar.  The present translation, though pretending

to no scholarship, is dutifully literal, excepting, however, the

omission of a few lines relating to the etymology of the words Sarira

and Deha, and one or two other things which, though interesting in

themselves, have no direct bearing on the main subject of treatment.

--T.R.]

 

Nothing is Spirit which can be the object of consciousness.  To one

possessed of right discrimination, the Spirit is the subject of

knowledge.  This right discrimination of Spirit and Not-spirit is set

forth in millions of treatises.

 

This discrimination of Spirit and Not-spirit is given below:

 

Q.  Whence comes pain to the Spirit?

 

A.  By reason of its taking a body. It is said in the Sruti: * "Not in

this (state of existence) is there cessation of pleasure and pain of a

living thing possessed of a body."

 

Q.  By what is produced this taking of a body?

 

A.  By Karma.**

 

Q.  Why does it become so by Karma?

 

A.  By desire and the rest (i.e., the passions).

 

Q.  By what are desire and the rest produced?

 

A.  By egotism.

 

Q.  By what again is egotism produced?

 

A.  By want of right discrimination.

 

Q.  By what is this want of right discrimination produced?

 

A.  By ignorance.

 

Q.  Is ignorance produced by anything?

 

A.  No, by nothing.  Ignorance is without beginning and ineffable by

reason of its being the intermingling of the real (sat) and the unreal

(asat.)***  It is a something embodying the three qualities**** and is

said to be opposed to Wisdom, inasmuch as it produces the concept "I am

ignorant."  The Sruti says, "(Ignorance) is the power of the Deity and

is enshrouded by its own qualities." *****

 

----------

* Chandogya Upanishad.

 

** This word it is impossible to translate.  It means the doing of a

thing for the attainment of an object of worldly desire.

 

*** This word, as used in Vedantic works, is generally misunderstood. It

does not mean the negation of everything;  it means "that which does not

exhibit the truth," the "illusory."

 

**** Satva (goodness), Rajas (foulness), and Tamas (darkness) are the

three qualities;  pleasure, pain and indifference considered as

objective principles.

 

***** Chandogya Upanishad.

--------

 

The origin of pain can thus be traced to ignorance and it will not cease

until ignorance is entirely dispelled, which will be only when the

identity of the Self with Brahma (the Universal Spirit) is fully

realized.*  Anticipating the contention that the eternal acts (i.e.,

those enjoined by the Vedas) are proper, and would therefore lead to the

destruction of ignorance, it is said that ignorance cannot be dispelled

by Karma (religious exercises).

 

--------

* This portion has been condensed from the original.

--------

 

Q.  Why is it so?

 

A.  By reason of the absence of logical opposition between ignorance and

act.  Therefore it is clear that Ignorance can only be removed by

Wisdom.

 

Q.  How can this Wisdom be acquired?

 

A.  By discussion--by discussing the nature of Spirit and Non-Spirit.

 

Q.  Who are worthy of engaging in such discussion?

 

A.  Those who have acquired the four qualifications.

 

Q.  What are the four qualifications?

 

A.  (1) True discrimination of permanent and impermanent things. (2)

Indifference to the enjoyment of the fruits of one's actions both here

and hereafter.  (3) Possession of Sama and the other five qualities.

(4) An intense desire of becoming liberated (from conditional

existence).

 

(1.)  Q.  What is the right discrimination of permanent and impermanent

things?

 

A.  Certainty as to the Material Universe being false and illusive, and

Brahman being the only reality.

 

(2.)  Indifference to the enjoyment of the fruits of one's actions in

this world is to have the same amount of disinclination for the

enjoyment of worldly objects of desire (such as garland of flowers,

sandal-wood paste, women and the like) beyond those absolutely necessary

for the preservation of life, as one has for vomited food, &c.  The same

amount of disinclination to enjoyment in the society of  Rambha, Urvasi,

and other celestial nymphs in the higher spheres of life beginning with

Svarga loka and ending with Brahma loka.*

 

--------

* These include the whole range of Rupa loka (the world of forms)

in Buddhistic esoteric philosophy.

--------

 

(3)  Q.  What are the six qualities beginning with Sama?

 

A.  Sama, dama, uparati, titiksha, samadhana and sraddha.

 

Sama is the repression of the inward sense called Manas--i.e., not

allowing it to engage in any other thing but Sravana (listening to what

the sages say about the Spirit), Manana (reflecting on it), Nididhyasana

(meditating on the same).  Dama is the repression of the external

senses.

 

Q.  What are the external senses?

 

A.  The five organs of perception and the five bodily organs for the

performance of external acts.  Restraining these from all other things

but sravana and the rest, is dama.

 

Uparati is the abstaining on principle from engaging in any of the acts

and ceremonies enjoined by the shastras.  Otherwise, it is the state of

the mind which is always engaged in Sravana and the rest, without ever

diverging from them.

 

Titiksha (literally the desire to leave) is the bearing with

indifference all opposites (such as pleasure and pain, heat and cold,

&c.)  Otherwise, it is the showing of forbearance to a person one is

capable of punishing.

 

Whenever a mind, engaged in Sravana and the rest, wanders to any worldly

object of desire, and, finding it worthless, returns to the performance

of the three exercises--such returning is called samadhana.

 

Sraddha is an intensely strong faith in the utterances of one's guru and

of the Vedanta philosophy.

 

(4.)  An intense desire for liberation is called mumukshatva.

 

Those who possess these four qualifications, are worthy of engaging in

discussions as to the nature of Spirit and Not-Spirit, and, like

Brahmacharins, they have no other duty (but such discussion).  It is

not, however, at all improper for householders to engage in such

discussions;  but, on the contrary, such a course is highly meritorious.

For it is said--Whoever, with due reverence, engages in the discussion

of subjects treated of in Vedanta philosophy and does proper service to

his guru, reaps happy fruits.  Discussion as to the nature of Spirit and

Not-Spirit is therefore a duty.

 

Q.  What is Spirit?

 

A.  It is that principle which enters into the composition of man and is

not included in the three bodies, and which is distinct from the five

sheaths (Koshas), being sat (existence),* chit (consciousness),** and

ananda (bliss),*** and witness of the three states.

 

--------

* This stands for Purusha.

 

** This stands for Prakriti, cosmic matter, irrespective of the state we

perceive it to be in.

 

*** Bliss is Maya or Sakti, it is the creative energy producing changes

of state in Prakriti. Says the Sruti (Taittiriya Upanishad):  "Verily

from Bliss are all these bhutas (elements) born, and being born by it

they live, and they return and enter into Bliss."

--------

 

Q.  What are the three bodies?

 

A.  The gross (sthula), the subtile (sukshma), and the causal (karana).

 

Q.  What is the gross body?

 

A.  That which is the effect of the Mahabhutas (primordial subtile

elements) differentiated into the five gross ones (Panchikrita),* is

born of Karma and subject to the six changes beginning with birth.**  It

is said:--

 

What is produced by the (subtile) elements differentiated into the five

gross ones, is acquired by Karma, and is the measure of pleasure and

pain, is called the body (sarira) par excellence.

 

Q.  What is the subtile body?

 

A.  It is the effect of the elements not differentiated into five and

having seventeen characteristic marks (lingas).

 

Q.  What are the seventeen?

 

A.  The five channels of knowledge (Jnanendriyas), the five organs of

action, the five vital airs, beginning with prana, and manas and buddhi.

 

-------

* The five subtile elements thus produce the gross ones--each of

the five is divided into eight parts, four of those parts and one

part of each of the others enter into combination, and the result

is the gross element corresponding with the subtile element,

whose parts predominate in the composition.

 

** These six changes are--birth, death, existence in time, growth,

decay, and undergoing change of substance (parinam) as milk is changed

into whey.

--------

 

Q.  What are the Jnandendriyas?

 

A.  [Spiritual] Ear, skin, eye, tongue and nose.

 

Q.  What is the ear?

 

A.  That channel of knowledge which transcends the [physical] ear, is

limited by the auricular orifice, on which the akas depends, and which

is capable of taking cognisance of sound.

 

Q.  The skin?

 

A.  That which transcends the skin, on which the skin depends, and which

extends from head to foot, and has the power of perceiving heat and

cold.

 

Q.  The eye?

 

A.  That which transcends the ocular orb, on which the orb depends,

which is situated to the front of the black iris and has the power of

cognising forms.

 

Q.  The tongue?

 

A.  That which transcends the tongue, and can perceive taste.

 

Q.  The nose?

 

A.  That which transcends the nose, and has the power of smelling.

 

Q.  What are the organs of action?

 

A.  The organ of speech (vach), hands, feet, &c.

 

Q.  What is vach?

 

A.  That which transcends speech, in which speech resides, and which is

located in eight different centres* and has the power of speech.

 

--------

* The secret commentaries say seven;  for it does not separate the lips

into the "upper" and "nether" lips.  And, it adds to the seven centres

the seven passages in the head connected with, and affected by, vach--

namely, the mouth, the two eyes, the two nostrils and the two ears.

"The left ear, eye and nostril being the messengers of the right side of

the head;  the right ear, eye and nostril, those of the left side."  Now

this is purely scientific.  The latest discoveries and conclusions of

modern physiology have shown that the power or the faculty of human

speech is located in the third frontal cavity of the left hemisphere of

the brain.  On the other hand, it is a well known fact that the nerve

tissues inter-cross each other (decussate) in the brain in such a way

that the motions of our left extremities are governed by the right

hemisphere, while the motions of our right limbs are subject to the left

hemisphere of the brain.

---------

 

Q.  What are the eight centres?

 

A.  Breast, throat, head, upper and nether lips, palate ligature

(fraenum), binding the tongue to the lower jaw and tongue.

 

Q.  What is the organ of the hands?

 

A.  That which transcends the hands, on which the palms depend, and

which has the power of giving and taking.... (The other organs are

similarly described.)

 

 

Q.  What is the antahkarana? *

 

A.  Manas, buddhi, chitta and ahankara form it.  The seat of the manas

is the root of the throat, of buddhi the face, of chitta the umbilicus,

and of ahankara the breast.  The functions of these four components of

antahkarana are respectively doubt, certainty, retention and egotism.

 

Q.  How are the five vital airs,** beginning with prana, named?

 

--------

* A flood of light will be thrown on the text by the note of a learned

occultist, who says:--"Antahkarana is the path of communication between

soul and body, entirely disconnected with the former, existing with,

belonging to, and dying with the body." This path is well traced in the

text.

 

** These vitals airs and sub-airs are forces which harmonize the

interior man with his surroundings, by adjusting the relations of the

body to external objects.  They are the five allotropic modifications of

life.

-------

 

A.  Prana, apana, vyana, udana and samana. Their locations are said to

be:--of prana the breast, of apana the fundamentum, of samana the

umbilicus, of udana the throat, and vyana is spread all over the body.

Functions of these are:--prana goes out, apana descends, udana ascends,

samana reduces the food eaten into an undistinguishable state, and vyana

circulates all over the body.  Of these five vital airs there are five

sub-airs--namely, naga, kurma, krikara, devadatta and dhananjaya.

Functions of these are:--eructations produced by naga, kurma opens the

eye, dhananjaya assimilates food, devadatta causes yawning, and krikara

produces appetite--this is said by those versed in Yoga.

 

The presiding powers (or macrocosmic analogues) of the five channels of

knowledge and the others are dik (akas) and the rest. Dik, vata (air),

arka (sun), pracheta (water), Aswini, bahni (fire), Indra, Upendra,

Mrityu (death), Chandra (moon), Brahma, Rudra, and Kshetrajnesvara,*

which is the great Creator and cause of everything.  These are the

presiding powers of ear, and the others in the order in which they

occur.

 

All these taken together form the linga sarira.**  It is also said in

the Shastras:--

 

The five vital airs, manas, buddhi, and the ten organs form the subtile

body, which arises from the subtile elements, undifferentiated into the

five gross ones, and which is the means of the perception of pleasure

and pain.

 

Q.  What is the Karana sarira?

 

---------

* The principle of intellect (Buddhi) in the macrocosm.  For further

explanation of this term, see Sankara's commentaries on the Brahma

Sutras.

 

** Linga means that which conveys meaning, characteristic mark.

--------

 

A.  It is ignorance [of different monads] (avidya), which is the cause

of the other two bodies, and which is without beginning [in the present

manvantara],* ineffable, reflection [of Brahma] and productive of the

concept of non-identity between self and Brahma.  It is also said:--

 

"Without a beginning, ineffable avidya is called the upadhi (vehicle)--

karana (cause).  Know the Spirit to be truly different from the three

upadhis--i.e., bodies."

 

Q.  What is Not-Spirit?

 

A.  It is the three bodies [described above], which are impermanent,

inanimate (jada), essentially painful and subject to congregation and

segregation.

 

--------

* It must not be supposed that avidya is here confounded with prakriti.

What is meant by avidya being without beginning, is that it forms no

link in the Karmic chain leading to succession of births and deaths, it

is evolved by a law embodied in prakriti itself.  Avidya is ignorance or

matter as related to distinct monads, whereas the ignorance mentioned

before is cosmic ignorance, or maya-Avidya begins and ends with this

manvantara. Maya is eternal.  The Vedanta philosophy of the school of

Sankara regards the universe as consisting of one substance, Brahman

(the one ego, the highest abstraction of subjectivity from our

standpoint), having an infinity of attributes, or modes of manifestation

from which it is only logically separable.  These attributes or modes in

their collectivity form Prakriti (the abstract objectivity).  It is

evident that Brahman per se does not admit of any description other than

"I am that I am."  Whereas Prakriti is composed of an infinite number of

differentiations of itself.  In the universe, therefore, the only

principle which is indifferentiable is this "I am that I am" and the

manifold modes of manifestation can only exist in reference to it.  The

eternal ignorance consists in this, that as there is but one

substantive, but numberless adjectives, each adjective is capable of

designating the All.  Viewed in time the most permanent object or mood

of the great knower at any moment represents the knower, and in a sense

binds it with limitations. In fact, time itself is one of these infinite

moods, and so is space.  The only progress in Nature is the realization

of moods unrealized before.

--------

 

Q.  What is impermanent?

 

A.  That which does not exist in one and the same state in the three

divisions of time [namely, present, past and future.]

 

Q.  What is inanimate (jada)?

 

A.  That which cannot distinguish between the objects of its own

cognition and the objects of the cognition of others....

 

Q.  What are the three states (mentioned above as those of which the

Spirit is witness)?

 

A.  Wakefulness (jagrata), dreaming (svapna), and the state of dreamless

slumber (sushupti).

 

Q.  What is the state of wakefulness?

 

A.  That in which objects are known through the avenue of [physical]

senses.

 

Q.  Of  dreaming?

 

A.  That in which objects are perceived by reason of desires resulting

from impressions produced during wakefulness.

 

Q.  What is the state of dreamless slumber?

 

A.  That in which there is an utter absence of the perception of

objects.

 

The indwelling of the notion of "I" in the gross body during wakefulness

is visva (world of objects),* in subtile body during dreaming is taijas

(magnetic fire), and in the causal body during dreamless slumber is

prajna (One Life).

 

Q.  What are the five sheaths?

 

 

A.  Annamaya, Pranamaya, Manomaya, Vjjnanamaya, and Anandamaya.

 

Annamaya is related to anna** (food), Pranamaya of prana (life),

Manomaya of manas, Vijnanamaya of vijnana (finite perception),

Anandamaya of ananda (illusive bliss).

 

-------

* That is to say, by mistaking the gross body for self, the

consciousness of external objects is produced.

 

** This word also means the earth in Sanskrit.

-------

 

Q.  What is the Annamaya sheath?

 

A.  The gross body.

 

Q.  Why?

 

A.  The food eaten by father and mother is transformed into semen and

blood, the combination of which is transformed into the shape of a body.

It wraps up like a sheath and hence so called.  It is the transformation

of food and wraps up the spirit like a sheath--it shows the spirit

which is infinite as finite, which is without the six changes, beginning

with birth as subject to those changes, which is without the three kinds

of pain* as liable to them.  It conceals the spirit as the sheath

conceals the sword, the husk the grain, or the womb the fetus.

 

Q.  What is the next sheath?

 

A.  The combination of the five organs of action, and the five vital

airs form the Pranamaya sheath.

 

By the manifestation of prana, the spirit which is speechless appears as

the speaker, which is never the giver as the giver, which never moves as

in motion, which is devoid of hunger and thirst as hungry and thirsty.

 

Q.  What is the third sheath?

 

A.  It is the five (subtile) organs of sense (jnanendriya) and manas.

 

--------

* The three kinds of pain are:--

 

Adhibhautika, i.e., from external objects, e.g., from thieves,

wild animals, &c.

 

Adhidaivika, i.e., from elements, e.g., thunder, &c.

 

Adhyatmika, i.e., from within one's self, e.g., head-ache, &c.

See Sankhya Karika, Gaudapada's commentary on the opening Sloka.

-------

 

By the manifestation of this sheath (vikara) the spirit which is devoid

of doubt appears as doubting, devoid of grief and delusion as grieved

and deluded, devoid of sight as seeing.

 

Q.  What is the Vijnanamaya sheath?

 

A.  [The essence of] the five organs of sense form this sheath in

combination with buddhi.

 

Q.  Why is this sheath called the jiva (personal ego), which by reason

of its thinking itself the actor, enjoyer, &c., goes to the other loka

and comes back to this?*

 

A.  It wraps up and shows the spirit which never acts as the actor,

which never cognises as conscious, which has no concept of certainty as

being certain, which is never evil or inanimate as being both.

 

Q.  What is the Anandamaya sheath?

 

A.  It is the antahkarana, wherein ignorance predominates, and which

produces gratification, enjoyment, &c.  It wraps up and shows the

spirit, which is void of desire, enjoyment and fruition, as having them,

which has no conditioned happiness as being possessed thereof.

 

Q.  Why is the spirit said to be different from the three bodies?

 

A.  That which is truth cannot be untruth, knowledge ignorance, bliss

misery, or vice versa.

 

Q.  Why is it called the witness of the three states?

 

A.  Being the master of the three states, it is the knowledge of the

three states, as existing in the present, past and future.**

 

-------

* That is to say, flits from birth to birth.

 

** It is the stable basis upon which the three states arise and

disappear.

-------

 

 

Q.  How is the spirit different from the five sheaths?

 

A.  This is being illustrated by an example:--"This is my cow," "this is

my calf," "this is my son or daughter," "this is my wife," "this is my

anandamaya sheath," and so on*--the spirit can never be connected with

these concepts;  it is different from and witness of them all.  For it

is said in the Upanishad--[The spirit is] "naught of sound, of touch, of

form, or colour, of taste, or of smell;  it is everlasting, having no

beginning or end, superior [in order of subjectivity] to Prakriti

(differentiated matter);  whoever correctly understands it as such

attains mukti (liberation)."  The spirit has also been called (above)

sat, chit, and ananda.

 

Q.  What is meant by its being sat (presence)?

 

A.  Existing unchanged in the three divisions of time and uninfluenced

by anything else.

 

Q.  What by being chit (consciousness)?

 

A.  Manifesting itself without depending upon anything else, and

containing the germ of everything in itself.

 

Q.  What by being ananda (bliss)?

 

A.  The ne plus ultra of bliss.

 

Whoever knows without doubt and apprehension of its being otherwise, the

self as being one with Brahma or spirit, which is eternal, non-dual and

unconditioned, attains moksha (liberation from conditioned existence.)

 

--------

* The "heresy of individuality," or attavada of the Buddhists.

--------

 

 

 

 

Was Writing Known Before Panini?

 

 

I am entrusted with the task of putting together some facts which would

support the view that the art of writing was known in India before the

time of our grammarian--the Siva-taught Panini. Professor Max Muller has

maintained the contrary opinion ever since 1856, and has the approbation

of other illustrious Western scholars.  Stated briefly, their position

is that the entire absence of any mention of "writing, reading, paper,

or pen" in the Vedas, or during the whole of the Brahmana period, and

the almost, if not quite, as complete silence as to them throughout the

Sutra period, "lead us to suppose that even then [the Sutra period],

though the art of writing began to be known, the whole literature of

India was preserved by oral tradition only." ("Hist. Sans. Lit.," p.

501.)  To support this theory, he expands the mnemonic faculty of our

respected ancestors to such a phenomenal degree that, like the bull's

hide of Queen Dido, it is made to embrace the whole ground needed for

the proposed city of refuge, to which discomfited savants may flee when

hard pressed. Considering that Professor Weber--a gentleman who, we

observe, likes to distil the essence of Aryan aeons down into an attar

of no greater volume than the capacity of the Biblical period--admits

that Europe now possesses 10,000 of our Sanscrit texts; and considering

that we have, or have had, many other tens of thousands which the

parsimony of Karma has hitherto withheld from the museums and libraries

of Europe, what a memory must have been theirs!

 

Under correction, I venture to assume that Panini, who was ranked among

the Rishis, was the greatest known grammarian in India, than whom there

is no higher in history, whether ancient or modern;  further, that

contemporary scholars agree that the Sanskrit is the most perfect of

languages.  Therefore, when Prof. Muller affirms that "there is not a

single word in Panini's terminology which presupposes the existence of

writing" (op. cit. 507), we become a little shaken in our loyal

deference to Western opinion.  For it is very hard to conceive how one

so pre-eminently great as Panini should have been incapable of inventing

characters to preserve his grammatical system--supposing that none had

previously existed--if his genius was equal to the invention of

classical Sanskrit.  The mention of the word Grantha, the equivalent for

a written or bound book in the later literature of India--though applied

by Panini (in B. I. 3, 75) to the Veda;  (in B. iv. 3, 87) to any work;

(in B. iv. 3, 116) to the work of any individual author;  and (in B. iv.

3, 79) to any work that is studied, do not stagger Prof. Muller at all.

Grantha he takes to mean simply a composition, and this may be handed

down to posterity by oral communication.  Hence, we must believe that

Panini was illiterate;  but yet composed the most elaborate and

scientific system of grammar ever known;  recorded its 3,996 rules only

upon the molecular quicksands of his "cerebral cineritious matter," and

handed them over to his disciples by atmospheric vibration, i.e., oral

teaching!  Of course, nothing could be clearer;  it commends itself to

the simplest intellect as a thing most probable!  And in the presence of

such a perfect hypothesis, it seems a pity that its author should (op.

cit. 523) confess that "it is possible" that he "may have overlooked

some words in the Brahmanas and Sutras, which would prove the existence

of written books previous to Panini." That looks like the military

strategy of our old warriors, who delivered their attack boldly, but

nevertheless tried to keep their rear open for retreat if compelled.

The precaution was necessary:  written books did exist many centuries

before the age in which this radiant sun of Aryan thought rose to shine

upon his age.  They existed, but the Orientalist may search in vain for

the proof amid the exoteric words in our earlier literature.  As the

Egyptian hierophants had their private code of hieratic symbols, and

even the founder of Christianity spoke to the vulgar in parables whose

mystical meaning was known only to the chosen few, so the Brahmans had

from the first (and still have) a mystical terminology couched behind

ordinary expressions, arranged in certain sequences and mutual

relations, which none but the initiate would observe.  That few living

Brahmans possess this key but proves that, as in other archaic religious

and philosophical systems, the soul of Hinduism has fled (to its primal

imparters--the initiates), and only the decrepit body remains with a

spiritually degenerate posterity.*

 

-------

* Not only are the Upanishads a secret doctrine, but in dozens of other

works as, for instance, in the Aitareya Aranyaka, it is plainly

expressed that they contain secret doctrines, that are not to be

imparted to any one but a Dwija (twice-born, initiated) Brahman.

--------

 

I fully perceive the difficulty of satisfying European philologists of a

fact which, upon my own statement, they are debarred from verifying.  We

know that from the present mental condition of our Brahmans.  But I hope

to be able to group together a few admitted circumstances which will

aid, at least, to show the Western theory untenable, if not to make a

base upon which to rest our claim for the antiquity of Sanskrit writing.

Three good reasons may be adduced in support of the claim--though they

will be regarded as circumstantial evidence by our opponents.

 

I.--It can be shown that writing was known in Phoenicia from the date of

the acquaintance of Western history with her first settlements;  and

this may be dated, according to European figures, 2760 B.C., the age of

the Tyrian settlement.

 

II.--Our opponents confess to ignorance of the source whence the

Phoenicians themselves got their alphabet.

 

III.--It can be proved that before the final division and classification

of languages, there existed two languages in every nation:  (a) the

profane or popular language of the masses;  (b) the sacerdotal or secret

language of the initiates of the temples and mysteries--the latter being

one and universal.  Or, in other, words, every great people had, like

the Egyptians, its Demotic and its Hieratic writing and language, which

had resulted first in a pictorial writing or the hieroglyphics, and

later on in a phonetic alphabet.  Now it requires a stretch of

prejudice, indeed, to assert upon no evidence whatever that the Brahman

Aryans--mystics and metaphysicians above everything--were the only ones

who had never had any knowledge of either the sacerdotal language or the

characters in which it was recorded. To contradict this gratuitous

assumption, we can furnish a whole array of proofs.  It can be

demonstrated that the Aryans no more borrowed their writing from the

Hellenes, or from the Phoenicians, than they were indebted to the

influence of the former for all their arts and sciences.  (Even if we

accept Mr. Cunningham's "Indo-Grecian Period," for it lasted only from

250-57 B.C., as he states it.)  The direct progenitor of the Vedic

Sanskrit was the sacerdotal language (which has a distinct name among

the initiates).  The Vach--its alter ego or the "mystic self," the

sacerdotal speech of the initiated Brahman--became in time the mystery

language of the inner temple, studied by the initiates of Egypt and

Chaldea;  of the Phoenicians and the Etruscans;  of the Pelasgi and

Palanquans;  in short, of the whole globe.  The appellation DEVANAGARI

is the synonym of, and identical with, the Hermetic and Hieratic

NETER-KHARI (divine speech) of the Egyptians.

 

As the discussion divides naturally into two parts as to treatment--

though a general synthesis must be the final result--we will proceed to

examine the first part--namely, the charge that the Sanskrit alphabet is

derived from the Phoenicians.  When a Western philologer asserts that

writing did not exist before a certain period, we assume that he has

some approximate certitude as to its real invention.  But so far is this

from the truth, that admittedly no one knows whence the Phoenicians

learned the characters, now alleged (by Gesenius first) to be the source

from which modern alphabets were directly derived.  De Rouge's

investigations make it extremely probable that "they were borrowed, or

rather adapted from certain archaic hieroglyphics of Egypt:"  a theory

which the Prisse Papyrus, "the oldest in existence," strongly supports

by its "striking similarities with the Phoenician characters."  But the

same authority traces it back one step farther.  He says that the

ascription (by the myth-makers) of the art of writing to Thoth, or to

Kadmos, "only denotes their belief in its being brought from the East

(Kedem), or being perhaps primeval."  There is not even a certainty

whether, primevally or archaically, "there were several original

alphabetical systems, or whether one is to be assumed as having given

rise to the various modes of writing in use."  So, if conjecture has the

field, it is no great disloyalty to declare one's rebellion against the

eminent Western gentlemen who are learnedly guessing at the origin of

things.  Some affirm that the Phoenicians derived their so-called

Kadmean or Phoenician writing-characters from the Pelasgians, held also

to have been the inventors, or at least the improvers, of the so-called

Kadmean characters.  But, at the same time, this is not proven, they

confess, and they only know that the latter were in possession of the

art of writing "before the dawn of history." Let us see what is known of

both Phoenicians and Pelasgians.

 

If we inquire who were the Phoenicians, we learn as follows:--From

having been regarded as Hamites on Bible testimony, they suddenly became

Semites--on geographical and philological evidence(?).  Their origin

begins, it is said, on the shores of the Erythrian Sea;  and that sea

extended from the eastern shores of Egypt to the western shores of

India.  The Phoenicians were the most maritime nation in the world.

That they knew perfectly the art of writing no one would deny.  The

historical period of Sidon begins 1500 B.C.  And it is well ascertained

that in 1250 Sanchoniathon had already compiled from annals and State

documents, which filled the archives of every Phoenician city, the full

records of their religion.  Sanchoniathon wrote in the Phoenician

language, and was mis-translated later on into Greek by Philo of Byblus,

and annihilated bodily--as to his works--except one small fragment

preserved by Eusebius, the literary Siva, the Destroyer of nearly all

heathen documents that fell in his way.  To see the direct bearing of

the alleged superior knowledge of the Phoenicians upon the alleged

ignorance of the Aryan Brahmans, one has but to turn to "European

Universal History," meagre though its details and possible knowledge,

yet I suppose no one would contradict the historical facts given.  Some

fragments of Dius, the Phoenician who wrote the history of Tyre, are

preserved in Josephus;  and Tyre's activity begins 1100 B.C., in the

earlier part of the third period of Phoenician history, so called.  And

in that period, as we are told, they had already reached the height of

their power;  their ships covered all seas, their commerce embraced the

whole earth, and their colonies flourished far and near.  Even on

Biblical testimony they are known to have come to the Indies by the Red

Sea, while trading on Solomon's account about a millennium before the

Western era. These data no man of science can deny.  Leaving entirely

aside the thousand-and-one documentary proofs that could be given on the

evidence of our most ancient texts on Occult Sciences, of inscribed

tablets, &c., those historical events that are accepted by the Western

world are alone here given.  Turning to the Mahabharata, the date of

which--on the sole authority of the fancy lore drawn from the inner

consciousness of German scholars, who perceive in the great epic poem

proofs of its modern fabrication in the words "Yavana" and others--has

been changed from 3300 years to the first centuries after Christ (!!),

we find:  (1) ample evidence that the ancient Hindus had navigated

(before the establishment of the caste system) the open seas to the

regions of the Arctic Ocean and held communication with Europe;  and (2)

that the Pandus had acquired universal dominion and taught the

sacrificial mysteries to other races (see Mahabharata, book xiv,).  With

such proofs of international communication, and more than proved

relations between the Indian Aryans and the Phoenicians, Egyptians and

other literate people, it is rather startling to be told that our

forefathers of the Brahmanic period knew nothing of writing.

 

Admitting, for the argument only, that the Phoenician were the sole

custodians of the glorious art of writing, and that as merchants they

traded with India, what commodity, I ask, could they have offered to a

people led by the Brahmans so precious and marketable as this art of

arts, by whose help the priceless lore of the Rishis might be preserved

against the accidents of imperfect oral transmission?  And even if the

Aryans learned from Phoenicians how to write--to every educated Hindu an

absurdity--they must have possessed the art 2,000 or at least 1,000

years earlier than the period supposed by Western critics.  Negative

proof, perhaps?  Granted:  yet no more so than their own, and most

suggestive.

 

And now we may turn to the Pelasgians.  Notwithstanding the rebuke of

Niebuhr, who, speaking of the historian in general, shows him as hating

"the spurious philology, out of which the pretences to knowledge on the

subject of such extinct people arise," the origin of the Pelasgians is

conjectured to have been from--(a) swarthy Asiatics (Pellasici) or from

some (b) mariners--from the Greek Pelagos, the sea;  or again to be

sought for in the (c) Biblical Peleg!  The only divinity of their

Pantheon well known to Western history is Orpheus, also the "swarthy,"

the "dark-skinned;"  represented for the Pelasgians by Xoanon, their

"Divine Image."  Now if the Pelasgians were Asiatics, they must have

been Turanians, Semites or Aryans.  That they could not have been either

of the two first, and must have been the last named, is shown on

Herodotus' testimony, who declared them the forefathers of the Greeks--

though they spoke, as he says, "a most barbarous language."  Further,

unerring philology shows that the vast number of roots common both to

Greek and Latin, are easily explained by the assumption of a common

Pelasgic linguistic and ethnical stock in both nationalities.  But then

how about the Sanskrit roots traced in the Greek and Latin languages?

The same roots must have been present in the Pelasgian tongues?  We who

place the origin of the Pelasgian far beyond the Biblical ditch of

historic chronology, have reasons to believe that the "barbarous

language" mentioned by Herodotus was simply "the primitive and now

extinct Aryan tongue" that preceded the Vedic Sanskrit.  Who could they

be, these Pelasgians?  They are described generally on the meagre data

in hand as a highly intellectual, receptive, active and simple people,

chiefly occupied with agriculture;  warlike when necessary, though

preferring peace.  We are told that they built canals, subterranean

water-works, dams, and walls of astounding strength and most excellent

construction.  And their religion and worship originally consisted in a

mystic service of those natural powers--the sun, wind, water, and air

(our Surya, Maruts, Varuna, and Vayu), whose influence is visible in the

growth of the fruits of the earth;  moreover, some of their tribes were

ruled by priests, while others stood under the patriarchal rule of the

head of the clan or family.  All this reminds one of the nomads, the

Brahmanic Aryas of old under the sway of their Rishis, to whom were

subject every distinct family or clan.  While the Pelasgians were

acquainted with the art of writing, and had thus "a vast element of

culture in their possession before the dawn of history," we are told (by

the same philologists) that our ancestors knew of no writing until the

dawn of Christianity!

 

Thus the Pelasgianic language, that "most barbarous language" spoken by

this mysterious people, what was it but Aryan;  or rather, which of the

Aryan languages could it have been? Certainly it must have been a

language with the same and even stronger Sanskrit roots in it than the

Greek.  Let us bear in mind that the Aeolic was neither the language of

Aeschylus, nor the Attic, nor even the old speech of Homer.  As the

Oscan of the "barbarous" Sabines was not quite the Italian of Dante nor

even the Latin of Virgil.  Or has the Indo-Aryan to come to the sad

conclusion that the average Western Orientalist will rather incur the

blame of ignorance when detected than admit the antiquity of the Vedic

Sanskrit and the immense period which separated this comparatively rough

and unpolished language, compared with the classical Sanskrit, and the

palmy days of the "extinct Aryan tongue?"  The Latium Antiquum of Pliny

and the Aeolic of the Autochthones of Greece present the closest

kinship, we are told. They had a common ancestor--the Pelasgian.  What,

then, was the parent tongue of the latter unless it was the language

"spoken at one time by all the nations of Europe--before their

separation?" In the absence of all proofs, it is unreasonable that the

Rik-Brahmanas, the Mahabharata and every Nirukti should be treated as

flippantly as they now are.  It is admitted that, however inferior to

the classical Sanskrit of Panini, the language of the oldest portions of

Rig Veda, notwithstanding the antiquity of its grammatical forms, is the

same as that of the latest texts. Every one sees--cannot fail to see and

to know--that for a language so old and so perfect as the Sanskrit to

have survived alone, among all languages, it must have had its cycles of

perfection and its cycles of degeneration.  And, if one had any

intuition, he might have seen that what they call a "dead language"

being an anomaly, a useless thing in Nature, it would not have survived,

even as a "dead" tongue, had it not its special purpose in the reign of

immutable cyclic laws;  and that Sanskrit, which came to be nearly lost

to the world, is now slowly spreading in Europe, and will one day have

the extension it had thousands upon thousands of years back--that of a

universal language.  The same as to the Greek and the Latin: there will

be a time when the Greek of Aeschylus (and more perfect still in its

future form) will be spoken by all in Southern Europe, while Sanskrit

will be resting in its periodical pralaya;  and the Attic will be

followed later by the Latin of Virgil.  Something ought to have

whispered to us that there was also a time--before the original Aryan

settlers among the Dravidian and other aborigines, admitted within the

fold of Brahmanical initiation, marred the purity of the sacred

Sanskrita Bhasha--when Sanskrit was spoken in all its unalloyed

subsequent purity, and therefore must have had more than once its rise

and fall.  The reason for it is simply this:  classical Sanskrit was

only restored, if in some things perfected, by Panini.  Panini,

Katyayana or Patanjali did not create it;  it has existed throughout

cycles, and will pass through other cycles still.

 

Professor Max Miller is willing to admit that a tribe of Semitic

nomads--fourteen centuries before the year 1 of the Westerns--knew well

the art of writing, and had their historically and scientifically proven

"book of the covenant and the tables 'with the writing of God upon

them.'"  Yet the same authority tells us that the Aryans could neither

read nor write until the very close of the Brahmanic period.  "No trace

of writing can be discovered (by the philologists) in the Brahmanical

literature before the days of Panini."  Very well, and now what was the

period during which this Siva-taught sage is allowed to have flourished?

One Orientalist (Bohtlingk) refers us to 350 B.C., while less lenient

ones, like Professor Weber, land the grammarian right in the middle of

the second century of the Christian era!  Only, after fixing Panini's

period with such a remarkable agreement of chronology (other

calculations ranging variously between 400 B.C. and 460 A.D.), the

Orientalists place themselves inextricably between the horns of a

dilemma.  For whether Panini flourished 350 B.C. or 180 A.D., he could

not have been illiterate;  for firstly, in the Lalita Vistara, a

canonical book recognized by the Sanskritists, attributed by Max Muller

to the third Buddhist council (and translated into Tibetan), our Lord

Buddha is shown as studying, besides Devanagari, sixty-three other

alphabets specified in it as being used in various parts of India;  and

secondly, though Megasthenes and Nearchus do say that in their time the

laws of Manu were not (popularly) reduced to writing (Strabo, xv. 66 and

73) yet Nearchus describes the Indian art of making paper from cotton.

He adds that the Indians wrote letters on cotton twisted together

(Strabo, xv. 53 and 67).  This would be late in the Sutra period, no

doubt, according to Professor Miller's reasoning.  Can the learned

gentleman cite any record within that comparatively recent period

showing the name of the inventor of that cotton-paper, and the date of

his discovery? Surely so important a fact as that, a novelty so

transcendently memorable, would not have passed without remark.  One

would seem compelled, in the absence of any such chronicle, to accept

the alternative theory--known to us Aryan students as a fact--that

writing and writing materials were, as above remarked, known to the

Brahmans in an antiquity inconceivably remote--many centuries before the

epoch made illustrious by Panini.

 

Attention has been asked above to the interesting fact that the god

Orpheus, of "Thracia" (?) is called the "dark-skinned."  Has it escaped

notice that he is "supposed to be the Vedic Ribhu or Abrhu, an epithet

both of Indra and the Sun."*  And if he was "the inventor of letters,"

and is "placed anterior to both Homer and Hesiod," then what follows?

That Indra taught writing to the Thracian Pelasgians under the guise of

Orpheus,** but left his own spokesmen and vehicles, the Brahmans,

illiterate until "the dawn of Christianity?"  Or, that the gentlemen of

the West are better at intuitional chronology than conspicuous for

impartial research?

 

-------

* "Chamber's Encyclopedia," vii. 127.

 

** According to Herodotus the Mysteries were actually brought from India

by Orpheus.

-------

 

Orpheus was--in Greece--the son of Apollo or Helios, the sun-god,

according to corrected mythology, and from him received the phorminx or

lyre of seven strings, i.e.--according to occult phraseology--the

sevenfold mystery of the Initiation.  Now Indra is the ruler of the

bright firmament, the disperser of clouds, "the restorer of the sun to

the sky."  He is identified with Arjuna in the Samhita Satapatha

Brahmana (although Prof. Weber denies the existence of any such person

as Arjuna, yet there was indeed one), and Arjuna was the Chief of the

Pandavas;*  and though Pandu the white passes for his father, he is yet

considered the son of Indra.  As throughout India all ancient cyclopean

structures are even now attributed to the Pandavas, so all similar

structures in the West were anciently ascribed to the Pelasgians.

Moreover, as shown well by Pococke--laughed at because too intuitional

and too fair though, perchance less, philologically learned--the

Pandavas were in Greece, where many traces of them can be shown.

 

-------

* Another proof of the fact that the Pandavas were, though Aryans, not

Brahmans, and belonged to an Indian tribe that preceded the Brahmans,

and were later on Brahmanized, and then out-casted and called Mlechhas,

Yavanas (i.e., foreign to the Brahmans), is afforded in the following:

Pandu has two wives; and "it is not Kunti, his lawful wife, but Madri,

his most beloved wife," who is burnt with the old King when dead, as

well remarked by Prof Max Muller, who seems astonished at it without

comprehending the true reason.  As stated by Herodotus (v. 5), it was a

custom amongst the Thracians to allow the most beloved of a man's wives

to be sacrificed upon his tomb;  and Herodotus (iv. 17) asserts a

similar fact of the Scythians, and Pausanias (iv. 2) of the Greeks.

("Hist. Sans. Lit." p. 48).  The Pandavas and the Kauravas are called

esoterically cousins in the Epic poem because they were two distinct yet

Aryan tribes, and represent two peoples, not simply two families.

--------

 

In the Mahabharata, Arjuna is taught the occult philosophy by Krishna

(personification of the universal Divine Principle);  and the less

mythological view of Orpheus presents him to us as "a divine bard or

priest in the service of Zagreus .... founder of the Mysteries .... the

inventor of everything, in fact, that was supposed to have contributed

to the civilization and initiation into a more humane worship of the

deity."  Are not these striking parallels;  and is it not significant

that, in the cases of both Arjuna and Orpheus, the sublimer aspects of

religion should have been imparted along with the occult methods of

attaining it by masters of the mysteries?  Real Devanagari--non-phonetic

characters--meant formerly the outward symbols, so to say, the signs

used in the intercommunication between gods and initiated mortals.

Hence their great sacredness and the silence maintained throughout the

Vedic and the Brahmanical periods about any object concerned with, or

referring to, reading and writing.  It was the language of the gods.  If

our Western critics can only understand what the Ancient Hindu writers

meant by Rhutaliai, so often mentioned in their mystical writings, they

will be in a position to ascertain the source from which the Hindus

first derived their knowledge of writing.

 

A secret language, common to all schools of occult science once

prevailed throughout the world.  Hence Orpheus learnt "letters" in the

course of his initiation.  He is identified with Indra; according to

Herodotus he brought the art of writing from India; his complexion

swarthier than that of the Thracians points to his Indo-Aryan

nationality--supposing him to have been "a bard and priest," and not a

god;  the Pelasgians are said to have been born in Thracia;  they are

believed (in the West) to have first possessed the art of writing, and

taught the Phoenicians;  from the latter all modern alphabets proceed.

I submit, then, with all these coincidences and sequences, whether the

balance of proof is on the side of the theory that the Aryans

transmitted the art of writing to the people of the West;  or on the

side which maintains that they, with their caste of scholarly Brahmans,

their noble sacerdotal tongue, dating from high antiquity, their

redundant and splendid literature, their acquaintance with the most

wonderful and recondite potentialities of the human spirit, were

illiterate until the era of Panini, the grammarian and last of the

Rishis.  When the famous theorists of the Western colleges can show us a

river running from its mouth back to its source in the feeble mountain

spring, then may we be asked to believe in their theory of Aryan

illiteracy.  The history of human intellectual development shows that

humanity always passes through the stage of ideography or pictography

before attaining that of cursive writing.  It therefore remains with the

Western critics who oppose the antiquity of Aryan Scriptures to show us

the pictographic proofs which support their position.  As these are

notoriously absent, it appears they would have us believe that our

ancestors passed immediately from illiteracy to the Devanagari

characters of Panini's time.

 

Let the Orientalists bear in mind the conclusions drawn from a careful

study of the Mahabharata by Muir in his "Sanskrit Texts" (vol. I. pp.

390,480 and 482).  It may be conclusively proven on the authority of the

Mahabharata that the Yavanas (of whom India, as alleged, knew nothing

before the days of Alexander!) belong to those tribes of Kshatriyas who,

in consequence of their non-communication with, and in some cases

rejection by, the Brahmins, had become from twice-born, "Vrishalas,"--

i.e., outcasts (Mahabharata Anusasanaparvam, vv. 2103 F.):  "Sakah

Yavana-Kambojas tastah kshattriya jatayah Vrishalatvam parigatah

Brahmananam adarsana.  Dravidas cha Kalindas cha Pulindas chapy Usinarah

Kalisarpa Mahishakas tastah kshattriya jatayah," &c. &c. The same

reference may be found in verses 2158-9.  The Mahabharata shows the

Yavanas descended from Turvasu--once upon a time Kshatriya, subsequently

degraded into Vrishala.  Harivamsa shows when and how the Yavanas were

excommunicated.  It may be inferred from the account therein contained

of the expedition against Ayodhya by the Yavanas, and the subsequent

proceedings of Sagara, that the Yavanas were, previous to the date of

the expedition, Kshatriyas subject to the government of the powerful

monarchs who reigned at Ayodhya.  But on account of their having

rebelled against their sovereign, and attacked his capital, they were

excommunicated by Sagara who successfully drove them out of Ayodhya, at

the suggestion of Vasishtha who was the chief minister and guru of

Sagara's father.  The only trouble in connecting the Pelasgians with,

and tracing their origin to, the Kshatriyas of Rajputana, is created by

the Orientalist who constructs a fanciful chronology, based on no proof,

and showing only unfamiliarity with the world's real history, and with

Indian history even within historical periods.

 

The value of that chronology--which places virtually the "primitive

Indo-Germanic-period" before the ancient Vedic period (!)--may, in

conclusion, be illustrated by an example.  Rough as may be the

calculations offered, it is impossible to go deeper into any subject of

this class within the narrow limits prescribed, and without recourse to

data not generally accessible.  In the words of Prof. Max Muller:--"The

Code of Manu is almost the only work in Sanskrit literature which, as

yet, has not been assailed by those who doubt the antiquity of

everything Indian.  No historian has disputed its claim to that early

date which had from the first been assigned to it by Sir William Jones"

("Hist. Sans, Lit." p. 61).  And now, pray, what is this extremely

"early date?"  "From 880 to 1200 B.C.," we are told. We will then, for

the present purpose, accept this authoritative conclusion.  Several

facts, easily verifiable, have to be first of all noticed:--(1) Manu in

his many enumerations of Indian races, kingdoms and places, never once

mentions Bengal;  the Aryan Brahmans had not yet reached, in the days

when his Code was compiled, the banks of the Ganges nor the plains of

Bengal.  It was Arjuna who went first to Banga (Bengal) with his

sacrificial horse.  [Yavanas are mentioned in Rajdharma Anasasanika

Parva as part of the tribes peopling it.]  (2) In the Ayun a list of the

Hindu kings of Bengal is given.  Though the date of the first king who

reigned over Banga cannot be ascertained, owing to the great gaps

between the various dynasties;  it is yet known that Bengal ceased to be

an independent Hindu kingdom from 1203 after Christ.  Now if,

disregarding these gaps, which are wide and many, we make up the sum of

only those chronological periods of the reign of the several dynasties

that are preserved by history, we find the following:--

 

24 Kshatriya families of kings reigned for a period of 2,418 years

9 Kaista kings    "        "       "         "           250   "

11 Of the Adisur families "        "          "          714   "

10 Of the Bhopal family   "        "          "          689   "

10 Of the Pala dynasty (from 855 to 1040 A.D.) "   "    185    "

10 The Vaidya Rajahs reigned for a period of   "   "    137    "

                                                   --------

                                         Years . . . . 4,393   "

 

If we deduct from this sum 1,203, we have 3,190 years B.C. of successive

reigns.  If it can be shown on the unimpeachable evidence of the

Sanskrit texts that some of the reigns happened simultaneously, and the

line cannot therefore be shown as successive (as was already tried),

well and good.  Against an arbitrary chronology set up with a

predetermined purpose and theory in view, there will remain but little

to be said.  But if this attempt at reconciliation of figures and the

surrounding circumstances are maintained simply upon "critical, internal

evidence," then, in the presence of these 3,190 years of an unbroken

line of powerful and mighty Hindu kings, the Orientalists will have to

show a very good reason why the authors of the Code of Manu seem

entirely ignorant even of the existence of Bengal--if its date has to be

accepted as not earlier than 1280 B.C.!  A scientific rule which is good

enough to apply to the case of Panini ought to be valid in other

chronological speculations. Or, perhaps, this is one of those poor rules

which will not "work both ways?"

 

--A Chela

 

 

 

 

THEOSOPHICAL

 

 

What is Theosophy?

 

 

According to lexicographers, the term theosophia is composed of two

Greek words--theos "god," and sophas "wise."  So far, correct.  But the

explanations that follow are far from giving a clear idea of Theosophy.

Webster defines it most originally as "a supposed intercourse with

God and superior spirits, and consequent attainment of superhuman

knowledge by physical processes, as by the theurgic operations of some

ancient Platonists, or by the chemical processes of the German

fire-philosophers."

 

This, to say the least, is a poor and flippant explanation.  To

attribute such ideas to men like Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus, Jamblichus,

Porphyry, Proclus, shows either intentional misrepresentation, or

ignorance of the philosophy and motives of the greatest geniuses of the

later Alexandrian School.  To impute to those, whom their contemporaries

as well as posterity styled "theodidaktoi," god-taught, a purpose to

develop their psychological, spiritual perceptions by "physical

processes," is to describe them as materialists.  As to the concluding

fling at the fire-philosophers, it rebounds from them upon some of the

most eminent leaders of modern science;  those in whose mouths the Rev.

James Martineau places the following boast:  "Matter is all we want;

give us atoms alone, and we will explain the universe."

 

Vaughan offers a far better, more philosophical definition.  "A

Theosophist," he says, "is one who gives you a theory of God or the

works of God, which has not revelation, but inspiration of his own for

its basis."  In this view every great thinker and philosopher,

especially every founder of a new religion, school of philosophy, or

sect, is necessarily a Theosophist.  Hence, Theosophy and Theosophists

have existed ever since the first glimmering of nascent thought made man

seek instinctively for the means of expressing his own independent

opinions.

 

There were Theosophists before the Christian era, notwithstanding that

the Christian writers ascribe the development of the Eclectic

Theosophical system to the early part of the third century of their era.

Diogenes Laertius traces Theosophy to an epoch antedating the dynasty of

the Ptolemies;  and names as its founder an Egyptian Hierophant called

Pot-Amun, the name being Coptic, and signifying a priest consecrated to

Amun, the god of Wisdom.  But history shows its revival by Ammonius

Saccas, the founder of the Neo-Platonic School.  He and his disciples

called themselves "Philaletheians"--lovers of the truth;  while others

termed them the "Analogists," on account of their method of interpreting

all sacred legends, symbolical myths, and mysteries, by a rule of

analogy or correspondence so that events which had occurred in the

external world were regarded as expressing operations and experiences of

the human soul.  It was the aim and purpose of Ammonius to reconcile all

sects, peoples, and nations under one common faith--a belief in one

Supreme, Eternal, Unknown, and Unnamed Power, governing the universe by

immutable and eternal laws.  His object was to prove a primitive system

of Theosophy, which, at the beginning, was essentially alike in all

countries:  to induce all men to lay aside their strifes and quarrels,

and unite in purpose and thought as the children of one common mother;

to purify the ancient religions, by degrees corrupted and obscured, from

all dross of human element, by uniting and expounding them upon pure

philosophical principles. Hence, the Buddhistic, Vedantic and Magian, or

Zoroastrian systems were taught in the Eclectic Theosophical School

along with all the philosophies of Greece.  Hence also, that

pre-eminently Buddhistic and Indian feature among the ancient

Theosophists of Alexandria, of due reverence for parents and aged

persons, a fraternal affection for the whole human race, and a

compassionate feeling for even the dumb animals.  While seeking to

establish a system of moral discipline which enforced upon people the

duty to live according to the laws of their respective countries, to

exalt their minds by the research and contemplation of the one Absolute

Truth;  his chief object, in order, as he believed, to achieve all

others, was to extract from the various religious teachings, as from a

many-chorded instrument, one full and harmonious melody, which would

find response in every truth-loving heart.

 

Theosophy is, then, the archaic Wisdom-Religion, the esoteric doctrine

once known in every ancient country having claims to civilization.  This

"Wisdom" all the old writings show us as an emanation of the Divine

Principle;  and the clear comprehension of it is typified in such names

as the Indian Buddh, the Babylonian Nebo, the Thoth of Memphis, the

Hermes of Greece;  in the appellations, also, of some goddesses--Metis,

Neitha, Athena, the Gnostic Sophia;  and, finally, the Vedas, from the

word "to know."  Under this designation, all the ancient philosophers of

the East and West, the Hierophants of old Egypt, the Rishis of Aryavart,

the Theodidaktoi of Greece, included all knowledge of things occult and

essentially divine.  The Mercavah of the Hebrew Rabbis, the secular and

popular series, were thus designated as only the vehicle, the outward

shell, which contained the higher esoteric knowledges.  The Magi of

Zoroaster received instruction and were initiated in the caves and

secret lodges of Bactria; the Egyptian and Grecian hierophants had their

apporiheta, or secret discourses, during which the Mysta became an

Epopta--a Seer.

 

The central idea of the Eclectic Theosophy was that of a single Supreme

Essence, Unknown and Unknowable;  for "how could one know the knower?"

as inquires Brihadaranyaka Upanishad.  Their system was characterized by

three distinct features, the theory of the above-named Essence:  the

doctrine of the human soul;  an emanation from the latter, hence of the

same nature;  and its theurgy.  It is this last science which has led

the Neo-Platonists to be so misrepresented in our era of materialistic

science.  Theurgy being essentially the art of applying the divine

powers of man to the subordination of the blind forces of Nature, its

votaries were first decisively termed magicians--a corruption of the

word "Magh," signifying a wise or learned man. Sceptics of a century ago

would have been as wide of the mark if they had laughed at the idea of a

phonograph or telegraph.  The ridiculed and the "infidels" of one

generation generally become the wise men and saints of the next.

 

As regards the Divine Essence and the nature of the soul and spirit,

modern Theosophy believes now as ancient Theosophy did. The popular Dev

of the Aryan nations was identical with the Iao of the Chaldeans, and

even with the Jupiter of the less learned and philosophical among the

Romans;  and it was just as identical with the Jahve of the Samaritans,

the Tiu or "Tiusco" of the Northmen, the Duw of the Britons, and the

Zeus of the Thracians. As to the Absolute Essence, the One and All,

whether we accept the Greek Pythagorean, the Chaldean Kabalistic, or the

Aryan philosophy in regard to it, it will all lead to one and the same

result.  The Primeval Monad of the Pythagorean system, which retires

into darkness and is itself Darkness (for human intellect), was made the

basis of all things;  and we can find the idea in all its integrity in

the philosophical systems of Leibnitz and Spinoza.  Therefore, whether a

Theosophist agrees with the Kabala which, speaking of En-Soph, propounds

the query; "Who, then, can comprehend It, since It is formless, and

non-existent?" or, remembering that magnificent hymn from the Rig Veda

(Hymn 129, Book x.), inquires:

 

     "Who knows from whence this great creation sprang? Whether his will

     created or was mute. He knows it--or perchance even He knows not."

 

Or, again, he accepts the Vedantic conception of Brahma, who, in the

Upanishads, is represented as "without life, without mind, pure,"

unconscious, for Brahma is "Absolute Consciousness."  Or, even finally,

siding with the Svabhavikas of Nepaul, maintains that nothing exists but

"Svabhavat" (substance or nature) which exists by itself without any

creator--he is the true follower of pure and absolute Theosophy.  That

Theosophy which prompted such men as Hegel, Fichte and Spinoza to take

up the labours of the old Grecian philosophers and speculate upon the

One Substance--the Deity, the Divine All proceeding from the Divine

Wisdom--incomprehensible, unknown and unnamed by any ancient or modern

religious philosophy, with the exception of Judaism, including

Christianity and Mohammedanism.  Every Theosophist, then, holding to a

theory of the Deity "which has not revelation but an inspiration of his

own for its basis," may accept any of the above definitions or belong to

any of these religions, and yet remain strictly within the boundaries of

Theosophy.  For the latter is belief in the Deity as the ALL, the source

of all existence, the infinite that cannot be either comprehended or

known, the universe alone revealing It, or, as some prefer it, Him, thus

giving a sex to that, to anthropomorphize which is blasphemy.  True

Theosophy shrinks from brutal materialization; it prefers believing

that, from eternity retired within itself, the Spirit of the Deity

neither wills nor creates;  but from the infinite effulgence everywhere

going forth from the Great Centre, that which produces all visible and

invisible things is but a ray containing in itself the generative and

conceptive power, which, in its turn, produces that which the Greeks

called Macrocosm, the Kabalists Tikkun or Adam Kadmon, the archetypal

man, and the Aryans Purusha, the manifested Brahm, or the Divine Male.

Theosophy believes also in the Anastasis, or continued existence, and in

transmigration (evolution) or a series of changes of the personal ego,

which can be defended and explained on strict philosophical principles

by making a distinction between Paramatma (transcendental, supreme

spirit) and Jivatma (individual spirit) of the Vedantins.

 

To fully define Theosophy, we must consider it under all its aspects.

The interior world has not been hidden from all by impenetrable

darkness.  By that higher intuition acquired by Theosophia, or

God-knowledge, which carries the mind from the world of form into that of

formless spirit, man has been sometimes enabled, in every age and every

country, to perceive things in the interior or invisible world.  Hence,

the "Samadhi," or Dhyan Yog Samadhi, of the Hindu ascetics;  the

"Daimonlonphoti," or spiritual illumination of the Neo-Platonists;

the "sidereal confabulation of soul," of the Rosicrucians or

Fire-philosophers; and, even the ecstatic trance of mystics and of the

modern mesmerists and spiritualists, are identical in nature, though

various as to manifestation.  The search after man's diviner "self," so

often and so erroneously interpreted as individual communion with a

personal God, was the object of every mystic; and belief in its

possibility seems to have been coeval with the genesis of humanity, each

people giving it another name. Thus Plato and Plotinus call "Noetic

work" that which the Yogi and the Shrotriya term Vidya.  "By reflection,

self-knowledge and intellectual discipline, the soul can be raised to

the vision of eternal truth, goodness, and beauty--that is, to the

Vision of God.  This is the epopteia," said the Greeks. "To unite one's

soul to the Universal Soul," says Porphyry, "requires but a perfectly

pure mind.  Through self contemplation, perfect chastity, and purity of

body, we may approach nearer to It, and receive, in that state, true

knowledge and wonderful insight."  And Swami Dayanund Saraswati, who has

read neither Porphyry nor other Greek authors, but who is a thorough

Vedic scholar, says in his "Veda Bhashya" (opasna prakaru ank. 9)--"To

obtain Diksha (highest initiation) and Yog, one has to practise

according to the rules..... The soul in the human body can perform the

greatest wonders by knowing the Universal Spirit (or God) and

acquainting itself with the properties and qualities (occult) of all the

things in the universe.  A human being (a Dikshit or initiate) can thus

acquire a power of seeing and hearing at great distances."  Finally,

Alfred R. Wallace, F.R.S., a spiritualist and yet a confessedly great

naturalist, says, with brave candour:  "It is spirit that alone feels,

and perceives, and thinks, that acquires knowledge, and reasons and

aspires..... There not unfrequently occur individuals so constituted

that the spirit can perceive independently of the corporeal organs of

sense, or can, perhaps, wholly or partially quit the body for a time and

return to it again;  the spirit communicates with spirit easier than

with matter."  We can now see how, after thousands of years have

intervened between the age of the Gymnosophists* and our own highly

civilized era, notwithstanding, or, perhaps, just because of such an

enlightenment which pours its radiant light upon the psychological as

well as upon the physical realms of Nature, over twenty millions of

people today believe, under different form, in those same spiritual

powers that were believed in by the Yogis and the Pythagoreans, nearly

3,000 years ago.

 

--------

* The reality of the Yog-power was affirmed by many Greek and Roman

writers, who call the Yogis Indian Gymnosophists--by Strabo, Lucan,

Plutarch, Cicero (Tusculum), Pliny (vii. 2), &c.

--------

 

Thus, while the Aryan mystic claimed for himself the power of solving

all the problems of life and death, when he had once obtained the power

of acting independently of his body, through the Atman, "self," or

"soul;"  and the old Greeks went in search of Atmu, the Hidden one, or

the God-Soul of man, with the symbolical mirror of the Thesmophorian

mysteries;  so the spiritualists of today believe in the capacity of the

spirits, or the souls of the disembodied persons, to communicate visibly

and tangibly with those they loved on earth.  And all these, Aryan

Yogis, Greek philosophers, and modern spiritualists, affirm that

possibility on the ground that the embodied soul and its never embodied

spirit--the real self--are not separated from either the Universal Soul

or other spirits by space, but merely by the differentiation of their

qualities, as in the boundless expanse of the universe there can be no

limitation.  And that when this difference is once removed--according to

the Greeks and Aryans by abstract contemplation, producing the temporary

liberation of the imprisoned soul, and according to spiritualists,

through mediumship--such a union between embodied and disembodied

spirits becomes possible.  Thus was it that Patanjali's Yogis, and,

following in their steps, Plotinus, Porphyry and other Neo-Platonists,

maintained that in their hours of ecstasy, they had been united to, or

rather become as one with, God several times during the course of their

lives.  This idea, erroneous as it may seem in its application to the

Universal Spirit, was, and is, claimed by too many great philosophers to

be put aside as entirely chimerical.  In the case of the Theodidaktoi,

the only controvertible point, the dark spot on this philosophy of

extreme mysticism, was its claim to include that which is simply

ecstatic illumination, under the head of sensuous perception.  In the

case of the Yogis, who maintained their ability to see Iswara "face to

face," this claim was successfully overthrown by the stern logic of the

followers of Kapila, the founder of the Sankhya philosophy.  As to the

similar assumption made for their Greek followers, for a long array of

Christian ecstatics, and, finally, for the last two claimants to

"God-seeing" within these last hundred years--Jacob Bohme and

Swedenborg--this pretension would and should have been philosophically

and logically questioned, if a few of our great men of science, who are

spiritualists, had had more interest in the philosophy than in the mere

phenomenalism of spiritualism.

 

The Alexandrian Theosophists were divided into neophytes, initiates and

masters, or hierophants;  and their rules were copied from the ancient

Mysteries of Orpheus, who, according to Herodotus, brought them from

India.  Ammonius obligated his disciples by oath not to divulge his

higher doctrines, except to those who were proved thoroughly worthy and

initiated, and who had learned to regard the gods, the angels, and the

demons of other peoples, according to the esoteric hyponia, or

under-meaning.  "The gods exist, but they are not what the hoi polloi,

the uneducated multitude, suppose them to be," says Epicurus.  "He is

not an atheist who denies the existence of the gods, whom the multitude

worship, but he is such who fastens on these gods the opinions of the

multitude."  In his turn, Aristotle declares that of the "Divine Essence

pervading the whole world of Nature, what are styled the gods are simply

the first principles."

 

Plotinus, the pupil of the "God-taught" Ammonius, tells us that the

secret gnosis or the knowledge of Theosophy, has three degrees-opinion,

science, and illumination.  "The means or instrument of the first is

sense, or perception;  of the second, dialectics;  of the third,

intuition.  To the last, reason is subordinate;  it is absolute

knowledge, founded on the identification of the mind with the object

known."  Theosophy is the exact science of psychology, so to say;  it

stands in relation to natural, uncultivated mediumship, as the knowledge

of a Tyndall stands to that of a school-boy in physics.  It develops in

man a direct beholding;  that which Schelling denominates "a realization

of the identity of subject and object in the individual;"  so that under

the influence and knowledge of hyponia man thinks divine thoughts, views

all things as they really are, and, finally, "becomes recipient of the

Soul of the World," to use one of the finest expressions of Emerson.

"I, the imperfect, adore my own Perfect," he says in his superb "Essay

on the Oversoul."  Besides this psychological, or soul state, Theosophy

cultivated every branch of sciences and arts.  It was thoroughly

familiar with what is now commonly known as mesmerism. Practical theurgy

or "ceremonial magic," so often resorted to in their exorcisms by the

Roman Catholic clergy, was discarded by the Theosophists.  It is but

Jamblichus alone who, transcending the other Eclectics, added to

Theosophy the doctrine of Theurgy. When ignorant of the true meaning of

the esoteric divine symbols of Nature, man is apt to miscalculate the

powers of his soul, and, instead of communing spiritually and mentally

with the higher celestial beings, the good spirits (the gods of the

theurgists of the Platonic school), he will unconsciously call forth the

evil, dark powers which lurk around humanity, the undying, grim

creations of human crimes and vices, and thus fall from theurgia (white

magic) into goetia (or black magic, sorcery).  Yet, neither white nor

black magic are what popular superstition understands by the terms.  The

possibility of "raising spirits," according to the key of Solomon, is

the height of superstition and ignorance.  Purity of deed and thought

can alone raise us to an intercourse "with the gods" and attain for us

the goal we desire.  Alchemy, believed by so many to have been a

spiritual philosophy as well as a physical science, belonged to the

teachings of the Theosophical School.

 

It is a noticeable fact that neither Zoroaster, Buddha, Orpheus,

Pythagoras, Confucius, Socrates, nor Ammonius Saccas, committed anything

to writing.  The reason for it is obvious.  Theosophy is a double-edged

weapon and unfit for the ignorant or the selfish. Like every ancient

philosophy it has its votaries among the moderns;  but, until late in

our own days, its disciples were few in numbers, and of the most various

sects and opinions. "Entirely speculative, and founding no schools, they

have still exercised a silent influence upon philosophy;  and no doubt,

when the time arrives, many ideas thus silently propounded may yet give

new directions to human thought," remarks Mr. Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie,

himself a mystic and a Theosophist, in his large and valuable work, "The

Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia" (articles "Theosophical Society of New York,"

and "Theosophy," p. 731).* Since the days of the fire-philosophers, they

had never formed themselves into societies, for, tracked like wild

beasts by the Christian clergy, to be known as a Theosophist often

amounted, hardly a century ago, to a death-warrant.

 

----------

* "The Royal Masonic Cycloptedia of History, Rites, Symbolism, and

Biography." Edited by Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie IX. (Cryptonymus) Hon.

Member of the Canongate Kilwinning Lodge, No. 2, Scotland. New York J.

W. Bouton, 706, Broadway. 1877.

--------

 

The statistics show that, during a period of 150 years, no less than

90,000 men and women were burned in Europe for alleged witchcraft.  In

Great Britain only, from A.D. 1640 to 1660, but twenty years, 3,000

persons were put to death for compact with the "Devil."  It was but late

in the present century--in 1875--that some progressed mystics and

spiritualists, unsatisfied with the theories and explanations of

Spiritualism started by its votaries, and finding that they were far

from covering the whole ground of the wide range of phenomena, formed at

New York, America, an association which is now widely known as the

Theosophical Society.

 

(--H.P. Blavatsky)

 

 

 

 

How a "Chela" Found his "Guru"

 

[Being Extracts from a private letter to Damodar K. Mavalankar, Joint

Recording Secretary of the Theosophical Society.]

 

....When we met last at Bombay I told you what had happened to me at

Tinnevelly.  My health having been disturbed by official work and worry,

I applied for leave on medical certificate and it was duly granted.  One

day in September last, while I was reading in my room, I was ordered by

the audible voice of my blessed Guru, M---Maharsi, to leave all and

proceed immediately to Bombay, whence I was to go in search of Madame

Blavatsky wherever I could find her and follow her wherever she went.

Without losing a moment, I closed up all my affairs and left the

station.  For the tones of that voice are to me the divinest sound in

Nature, its commands imperative.  I traveled in my ascetic robes.

Arrived at Bombay, I found Madame Blavatsky gone, and learned through

you that she had left a few days before;  that she was very ill;  and

that, beyond the fact that she had left the place very suddenly with a

Chela, you knew nothing of her whereabouts.  And now, I must tell you

what happened to me after I had left you.

 

Really not knowing whither I had best go, I took a through ticket to

Calcutta;  but, on reaching Allahabad, I heard the same well-known

voice directing me to go to Berhampore.  At Azimgunge, in the train, I

met, most providentially I may say, with some Bengali gentlemen (I did

not then know they were also Theosophists, since I had never seen any of

them), who were also in search of Madame Blavatsky.  Some had traced her

to Dinapore, but lost her track and went back to Berhampore.  They knew,

they said, she was going to Tibet and wanted to throw themselves at the

feet of the Mahatmas to permit them to accompany her.  At last, as I was

told, they received from her a note, permitting them to come if they so

desired it, but saying that she herself was prohibited from going to

Tibet just now.  She was to remain, she said, in the vicinity of

Darjiling and would see the Mahatma on the Sikkhim Territory, where they

would not be allowed to follow her .... Brother Nobin K. Bannerji, the

President of the Adhi Bhoutic Bhratru Theosophical Society, would not

tell me where Madame Blavatsky was, or perhaps did not then know

himself. Yet he and others had risked all in the hope of seeing the

Mahatmas.  On the 23rd, at last he brought me from Calcutta to

Chandernagore, where I found Madame Blavatsky, ready to start by train

in five minutes.  A tall, dark-looking hairy Chela (not Chunder Cusho),

but a Tibetan I suppose by his dress, whom I met after I had crossed the

river Hugli with her in a boat, told me that I had come too late, that

Madame Blavatsky had already seen the Mahatmas and that he had brought

her back.  He would not listen to my supplications to take me with him,

saying he had no other orders than what he had already executed--namely,

to take her about twenty-five miles beyond a certain place he named to

me, and that he was now going to see her safe to the station and return.

The Bengali brother Theosophists had also traced and followed her,

arriving at the station half an hour later.  They crossed the river from

Chandernagore to a small railway station on the opposite side.  When the

train arrived, she got into the carriage, upon entering which I found

the Chela!  And, before even her own things could be placed in the van,

the train, against all regulations and before the bell was rung, started

off, leaving the Bengali gentlemen and her servant behind, only one of

them and the wife and daughter of another--all Theosophists and

candidates for Chelaship--having had time to get in.  I myself had

barely the time to jump into the last carriage. All her things, with the

exception of her box containing Theosophical correspondence, were left

behind with her servant. Yet, even the persons that went by the same

train with her did not reach Darjiling.  Babu Nobin Banerjee, with the

servant, arrived five days later;  and those who had time to take their

seats, were left five or six stations behind, owing to another

unforeseen accident (?), reaching Darjiling also a few days later.  It

required no great stretch of imagination to conclude that Madame

Blavatsky was, perhaps, being again taken to the Mahatmas, who, for some

good reasons best known to them, did not want us to be following and

watching her.  Two of the Mahatmas, I had learned for a certainty, were

in the neighbourhood of British territory;  and one of them was seen and

recognized, by a person I need not name here, as a high Chutukla of

Tibet.

 

The first days of her arrival Madame Blavatsky was living at the house

of a Bengali gentleman, a Theosophist, refusing to see any one, and

preparing, as I thought, to go again somewhere on the borders of Tibet.

To all our importunities we could get only this answer from her:  that

we had no business to stick to and follow her, that she did not want us,

and that she had no right to disturb the Mahatmas with all sorts of

questions that concerned only the questioners, for they knew their own

business best.  In despair, I determined, come what might, to cross the

frontier, which is about a dozen miles from here, and find the Mahatmas

or--DIE.  I never stopped to think that what I was going to undertake

would be regarded as the rash act of a lunatic.  I had no permission, no

"pass" from the Sikkhim Rajah, and was yet decided to penetrate into the

heart of a semi-independent State where, if anything happened, the

Anglo-Indian officials would not--if even they could--protect me, since

I should have crossed over without their permission.  But I never even

gave that a thought, but was bent upon one engrossing idea--to find and

see my Guru.  Without breathing a word of my intentions to any one, one

morning, namely, October 5, I set out in search of the Mahatma.  I had

an umbrella and a pilgrim's staff for sole weapons, with a few rupees in

my purse.  I wore the yellow garb and cap.  Whenever I was tired on the

road, my costume easily procured for me for a small sum a pony to ride.

The same afternoon I reached the banks of the Rungit River, which forms

the boundary between British and Sikkhimese territories.  I tried to

cross it by the aerial suspension bridge constructed of canes, but it

swayed to and fro to such an extent that I, who have never known in my

life what hardship was, could not stand it.  I crossed the river by the

ferry-boat, and this even not without much danger and difficulty.  That

whole afternoon I traveled on foot, penetrating further and further into

the heart of Sikkhim, along a narrow footpath.  I cannot now say how

many miles I traveled before dusk, but I am sure it was not less than

twenty or twenty-five miles.  Throughout, I saw nothing but impenetrable

jungles and forests on all sides of me, relieved at very long intervals

by solitary huts belonging to the mountain population. At dusk I began

to search around me for a place to rest in at night.  I met on the road,

in the afternoon, a leopard and a wild cat;  and I am astonished now to

think how I should have felt no fear then nor tried to run away.

Throughout, some secret influence supported me.  Fear or anxiety never

once entered my mind.  Perhaps in my heart there was room for no other

feeling but an intense anxiety to find my Guru.  When it was just

getting dark, I espied a solitary hut a few yards from the roadside.  To

it I directed my steps in the hope of finding a lodging.  The rude door

was locked.  The cabin was untenanted at the time.  I examined it on all

sides and found an aperture on the western side.  It was small indeed,

but sufficient for me to jump through.  It had a small shutter and a

wooden bolt.  By a strange coincidence of circumstances the hillman had

forgotten to fasten it on the inside when he locked the door.  Of

course, after what has subsequently transpired, I now, through the eye

of faith, see the protecting hand of my Guru everywhere around me.  Upon

getting inside I found the room communicated, by a small doorway, with

another apartment, the two occupying the whole space of this sylvan

mansion.  I laid down, concentrating every thought upon my Guru as

usual, and soon fell into a profound sleep.  Before I went to rest, I

had secured the door of the other room and the single window.  It may

have been between ten and eleven, or perhaps a little later, that I

awoke and heard sounds of footsteps in the adjoining room.  I could

plainly distinguish two or three people talking together in a dialect

unknown to me. Now, I cannot recall the same without a shudder.  At any

moment they might have entered from the other room and murdered me for

my money.  Had they mistaken me for a burglar the same fate awaited me.

These and similar thoughts crowded into my brain in an inconceivably

short period.  But my heart did not palpitate with fear, nor did I for

one moment think of the possibly tragical chances of the moment.  I know

not what secret influence held me fast, but nothing could put me out or

make me fear;  I was perfectly calm.  Although I lay awake staring into

the darkness for upwards of two hours, and even paced the room softly

and slowly without making any noise, to see if I could make my escape,

in case of need, back to the forest by the same way I had effected my

entrance into the hut--no fear, I repeat, or any such feeling ever

entered my heart.  I recomposed myself to rest. After a sound sleep,

undisturbed by any dream, I awoke at daybreak.  Then I hastily put on my

boots, and cautiously got out of the hut through the same window.  I

could hear the snoring of the owners of the hut in the other room.  But

I lost no time, and gained the path to Sikkhim (the city) and held on my

way with unflagging zeal.  From the inmost recesses of my heart I

thanked my revered Guru for the protection he had vouchsafed me during

the night.  What prevented the owners of the hut from penetrating to the

second room?  What kept me in the same serene and calm spirit, as if I

were in a room of my own house?  What could possibly make me sleep so

soundly under such circumstances,--enormous, dark forests on all sides

abounding in wild beasts, and a party of cut-throats--as most of the

Sikkhimese are said to be--in the next room, with an easy and rude door

between them and me?

 

When it became quite light, I wended my way on through hills and dales.

Riding or walking, the journey was not a pleasant one for any man not as

deeply engrossed in thought as I was then myself, and quite oblivious to

anything affecting the body.  I have cultivated the power of mental

concentration to such a degree of late that, on many an occasion, I have

been able to make myself quite unconscious of anything around me when my

mind was wholly bent upon the one object of my life, as several of my

friends will testify;  but never to such an extent as in this instance.

 

It was, I think, between eight and nine A.M.  I was following the road

to the town of Sikkhim, whence, I was assured by the people I met on the

road, I could cross over to Tibet easily in my pilgrim's garb, when I

suddenly saw a solitary horseman galloping towards me from the opposite

direction.  From his tall stature and skill in horsemanship, I thought

he was some military officer of the Sikkhim Rajah.  Now, I thought, I am

caught!  He will ask me for my pass and what business I have in the

independent territory of Sikkhim, and, perhaps, have me arrested and

sent back, if not worse.  But, as he approached me, he reined up.  I

looked at and recognized him instantly.... I was in the awful presence

of him, of the same Mahatma, my own revered Guru, whom I had seen before

in his astral body on the balcony of the Theosophical Headquarters.  It

was he, the "Himalayan Brother" of the ever-memorable night of December

last, who had so kindly dropped a letter in answer to one I had given

but an hour or so before in a sealed envelope to Madame Blavatsky, whom

I had never lost sight of for one moment during the interval.  The very

same instant saw me prostrated on the ground at his feet.  I arose at

his command, and, leisurely looking into his face, forgot myself

entirely in the contemplation of the image I knew so well, having seen

his portrait (the one in Colonel Olcott's possession) times out of

number.  I knew not what to say:  joy and reverence tied my tongue.  The

majesty of his countenance, which seemed to me to be the impersonation

of power and thought, held me rapt in awe. I was at last face to face

with "the Mahatma of the Himavat," and he was no myth, no "creation of

the imagination of a medium," as some sceptics had suggested.  It was no

dream of the night;  it was between nine and ten o'clock of the

forenoon.  There was the sun shining and silently witnessing the scene

from above.  I see him before me in flesh and blood, and he speaks to me

in accents of kindness and gentleness.  What more could I want?  My

excess of happiness made me dumb.  Nor was it until some time had

elapsed that I was able to utter a few words, encouraged by his gentle

tone and speech.  His complexion is not as fair as that of Mahatma

Koothoomi;  but never have I seen a countenance so handsome, a stature

so tall and so majestic.  As in his portrait, he wears a short black

beard, and long black hair hanging down to his breast;  only his dress

was different:  Instead of a white, loose robe he wore a yellow mantle

lined with fur, and on his head, instead of the turban, a yellow Tibetan

felt cap, as I have seen some Bhootanese wear in this country.  When the

first moments of rapture and surprise were over, and I calmly

comprehended the situation, I had a long talk with him.  He told me to

go no further, for I should come to grief.  He said I should wait

patiently if I wanted to become an accepted Chela; that many were those

who offered themselves as candidates, but that only a very few were

found worthy;  none were rejected, but all of them tried, and most found

to fail signally, as for example---and---.  Some, instead of being

accepted and pledged this year, were now thrown off for a year.  The

Mahatma, I found, speaks very little English--or at least it so seemed

to me--and spoke to me in my mother-tongue--Tamil.  He told me that if

the Chohan permitted Madame Blavatsky to visit Parijong next year, then

I could come with her.  The Bengali Theosophists who followed the

"Upasika" (Madame Blavatsky) would see that she was right in trying to

dissuade them from following her now.  I asked the blessed Mahatma

whether I could tell what I saw and heard to others.  He replied in the

affirmative, and that moreover I would do well to write to you and

describe all.

 

I must impress upon your mind the whole situation, and ask you to keep

well in view that what I saw was not the mere "appearance" only, the

astral body of the Mahatma, as we saw him at Bombay, but the living man,

in his own physical body.  He was pleased to say when I offered my

farewell namaskarams (prostration) that he approached the British

territory to see the Upasika.  Before he left me, two more men came on

horseback, his attendants I suppose, probably Chelas, for they were

dressed like lama-gylungs, and both, like himself, with long hair

streaming down their backs.  They followed the Mahatma, when he left, at

a gentle trot.  For over an hour I stood gazing at the place that he had

just quitted, and then I slowly retraced my steps.  Now it was that I

found for the first time that my long boots had pinched my leg in

several places, that I had eaten nothing since the day before, and that

I was too weak to walk further.  My whole body was aching in every limb.

At a little distance I saw petty traders with country ponies, carrying

burdens.  I hired one of these animals.  In the afternoon I came to the

Rungit River and crossed it.  A bath in its cool waters revived me.  I

purchased some fruit in the only bazaar there and ate heartily. I took

another horse immediately and reached Darjiling late in the evening.  I

could neither eat, nor sit, nor stand.  Every part of my body was

aching.  My absence had seemingly alarmed Madame Blavatsky.  She scolded

me for my rash and mad attempt to try to go to Tibet after that fashion.

When I entered the house I found with Madame Blavatsky, Bahu Parbati

Churn Roy, Deputy Collector of Settlements and Superintendent of Dearah

Survey, and his assistant, Babu Kanty Bhushan Sen, both members of our

Society.  At their prayer and Madame Blavatsky's command, I recounted

all that had happened to me, reserving of course my private conversation

with the Mahatma.  They were all, to say the least, astounded.  After

all, she will not go this year to Tibet; for which I am sure she does

not care, since she has seen our Masters and thus gained her only

object.  But we, unfortunate people! we lose our only chance of going

and offering our worship to the "Himalayan Brothers," who, I know, will

not soon cross over to British territory, if ever, again.

 

And now that I have seen the Mahatma in the flesh, and heard his living

voice, let no one dare say to me that the Brothers do not exist.  Come

now whatever will, death has no fear for me, nor the vengeance of

enemies;  for what I know, I know!

 

--S. Ramaswamier, F.T.S.

 

 

 

 

The Sages of the Himavat

 

 

While on my tour with Col. Olcott several phenomena occurred, in his

presence as well as in his absence, such as immediate answers to

questions in my Master's handwriting, and over his signature, put by a

number of our Fellows.  These occurrences took place before we reached

Lahore, where we expected to meet in the body my Master.  There I was

visited by him in the body, for three nights consecutively, for about

three hours every time, while I myself retained full consciousness, and,

in one case, even went to meet him outside the house.  To my knowledge

there is no case on the Spiritualist records of a medium remaining

perfectly conscious, and meeting, by previous arrangement, his

spirit-visitor in the compound, re-entering the house with him, offering

him a seat, and then holding a long converse with the "disembodied

spirit" in a way to give him the impression that he is in personal

contact with an embodied entity.  Moreover, him whom I saw in person at

Lahore was the same I had seen in astral form at the Headquarters of the

Theosophical Society, and again, the same whom I had seen in visions and

trances at his house, thousands of miles off, which I reached in my

astral Ego by his direct help and protection.  In those instances, with

my psychic powers hardly yet developed, I had always seen him as a rather

hazy form, although his features were perfectly distinct and their

remembrance was profoundly graven on my soul's eye and memory, while now

at Lahore, Jummoo, and elsewhere, the impression was utterly different.

In the former cases, when making Pranam (salutation) my hands passed

through his form, while on the latter occasions they met solid garments

and flesh. Here I saw a living man before me, the original of the

portraits in Madame Blavatsky's possession and in Mr. Sinnett's, though

far more imposing in his general appearance and bearing.  I shall not

here dwell upon the fact of his having been corporeally seen by both

Col. Olcott and Mr. Brown separately for two nights at Lahore, as they

can do so better, each for himself, if they so choose.  At Jummoo again,

where we proceeded from Lahore, Mr. Brown saw him on the evening of the

third day of our arrival there, and from him received a letter in his

familiar handwriting, not to speak of his visits to me almost every day.

And what happened the next morning almost every one in Jummoo is aware

of.  The fact is, that I had the good fortune of being sent for, and

permitted to visit a sacred Ashrum, where I remained for a few days in

the blessed company of several of the Mahatmas of Himavat and their

disciples.  There I met not only my beloved Gurudeva and Col. Olcott's

master, but several others of the fraternity, including one of the

highest.  I regret the extremely personal nature of my visit to those

thrice blessed regions prevents my saying more about it.  Suffice it

that the place I was permitted to visit is in the Himalayas, not in any

fanciful Summer Land, and that I saw him in my own sthula sarira

(physical body) and found my Master identical with the form I had seen

in the earlier days of my Chelaship.  Thus, I saw my beloved Guru not

only as a living man, but actually as a young one in comparison with

some other Sadhus of the blessed company, only far kinder, and not above

a merry remark and conversation at times.  Thus on the second day of my

arrival, after the meal hour, I was permitted to hold an intercourse for

over an hour with my Master.  Asked by him smilingly what it was that

made me look at him so perplexed, I asked in my turn:--"How is it,

Master, that some of the members of our Society have taken into their

heads a notion that you were 'an elderly man,' and that they have even

seen you clairvoyantly looking an old man past sixty?"  To which he

pleasantly smiled and said that this latest misconception was due to the

reports of a certain Brahmachari, a pupil of a Vedantic Swami in the

Punjab,* who had met last year in Tibet the chief of a sect, an elderly

Lama, who was his (my Master's) traveling companion at that time.  The

said Brahmachari, having spoken of the encounter in India, had led

several persons to mistake the Lama for himself.  As to his being

perceived clairvoyantly as an "elderly man," that could never be, he

added, as real clairvoyance could lead no one into such mistaken

notions;  and then he kindly reprimanded me for giving any importance to

the age of a Guru, adding that appearances were often false, &c., and

explaining other points.

 

--------

* See infra. Rajani Kanta Brahmachai's  "Interview with a Mahatma."

--------

 

These are all stern facts, and no third course is open to the reader.

What I assert is either true or false.  In the former case, no

Spiritualistic hypothesis can hold good, and it will have to be admitted

that the Himalayan Brothers are living men, and neither disembodied

spirits nor creations of the over-heated imagination of fanatics.  Of

course I am fully aware that many will discredit my account;  but I

write only for the benefit of those few who know me well enough to see

in me neither a hallucinated medium, nor attribute to me any bad motive,

and who have ever been true and loyal to their convictions and to the

cause they have so nobly espoused.  As for the majority who laugh at and

ridicule what they have neither the inclination nor the capacity to

understand, I hold them in very small account.  If these few lines will

help to stimulate even one of my brother-Fellows in the Society, or one

right-thinking man outside of it, to promote the cause of Truth and

Humanity, I shall consider that I have properly performed my duty.

 

--Damodar K. Mavalankar

 

 

 

 

The Himalayan Brothers--Do They Exist?

 

 

"Ask and it shall be given unto you;  knock and it shall be opened,"

this is an accurate representation of the position of the earnest

inquirer as to the existence of the Mahatmas.  I know of none who took

up this inquiry in right earnest and were not rewarded for their labours

with knowledge, certainty.  In spite of all this there are plenty of

people who carp and cavil but will not take the trouble of proving the

thing for themselves. Both by Europeans and a section of our own

countrymen--the too Europeanized graduates of Universities--the

existence of the Mahatmas is looked upon with incredulity and distrust,

to give it no harder name.  The position of the Europeans is easily

intelligible, for these things are so far removed from their

intellectual horizon, and their self-sufficiency is so great, that they

are almost impervious to these new ideas.  But it is much more difficult

to conceive why the people of India, who are born and brought up in an

atmosphere redolent with the traditions of these things, should affect

such scepticism.  It would have been more natural for them, on the other

hand, to hail such proofs as those I am now laying before the public

with the same satisfaction as an astronomer feels when a new star, whose

elements he has calculated, swims within his ken.  I myself was a

thorough-going disbeliever only two years back.  In the first place I

had never witnessed any occult phenomena myself, nor did I find any one

who had done so in that small ring of our countrymen for whom only I was

taught to have any respect--the "educated classes."  It was only in the

month of October, 1882, that I really devoted any time and attention to

this matter, and the result is that I have as little doubt with respect

to the existence of the Mahatmas as of mine own.  I now know that they

exist.  But for a long time the proofs that I had received were not all

of an objective character.  Many things which are very satisfactory

proofs to me would not be so to the reader.  On the other hand, I have

no right to speak of the unimpeachable evidence I now possess.

Therefore I must do the best I can with the little I am permitted to

give.  In the present paper I have brought forward such evidence as

would be perfectly satisfactory to all capable of measuring its

probative force.

 

The evidence now laid before the public was collected by me during the

months of October and November, 1882, and was at the time placed before

some of the leading members of the Theosophical Society, Mr. Sinnett

among others.  The account of Bro. Ramaswamier's interview with his Guru

in Sikkhim being then ready for publication, there was no necessity, in

their opinion, for the present paper being brought to light.  But since

an attempt has been made in some quarters to minimize the effect of Mr.

Ramaswamier's evidence by calling it most absurdly "the hallucinations

of a half-frozen strolling Registrar," I think something might be gained

by the publication of perfectly independent testimony of, perhaps,

equal, if not greater, value, though of quite a different character.

With these words of explanation as to the delay in its publication, I

resign this paper to the criticism of our sceptical friends.  Let them

calmly consider and pronounce upon the evidence of the Tibetan pedlar at

Darjiling, supported and strengthened by the independent testimony of

the young Brahmachari at Dehradun.  Those who were present when the

statements of these persons were taken, all occupy very respectable

positions in life--some in fact belonging to the front ranks of Hindu

Society, and several in no way connected with the Theosophical movement,

but, on the contrary, quite unfriendly to it.  In those days I again say

I was rather sceptical myself.  It is only since I collected the

following evidence and received more than one proof of the actual

existence of my venerated master, Mahatma Koothoomi, whose presence--

quite independently of Madame Blavatsky, Colonel Olcott or any "alleged"

Chela--was made evident to me in a variety of ways, that I have given up

the folly of doubting any longer.  Now I believe no more--I KNOW;  and

knowing, I would help others to obtain the same knowledge.

 

During my visit to Darjiling I lived in the same house with several

Theosophists, all as ardent aspirants for the higher life, and most of

them as doubtful with regard to the Himalayan Mahatmas as I was myself

at that time.  I met at Darjiling persons who claimed to be Chelas of

the Himalayan Brothers and to have seen and lived with them for years.

They laughed at our perplexity.  One of them showed us an admirably

executed portrait of a man who appeared to be an eminently holy person,

and who, I was told, was the Mahatma Koothoomi (now my revered master),

to whom Mr. Sinnett's "Occult World" is dedicated.  A few days after my

arrival, a Tibetan pedlar of the name of Sundook accidentally came to

our house to sell his things.  Sundook was for years well-known in

Darjiling and the neighbourhood as an itinerant trader in Tibetan

knick-knacks, who visited the country every year in the exercise of his

profession.  He came to the house several times during our stay there,

and seemed to us, from his simplicity, dignity of bearing and pleasant

manners, to be one of Nature's own gentlemen.  No man could discover in

him any trait of character even remotely allied to the uncivilized

savages, as the Tibetans are held in the estimation of Europeans.  He

might very well have passed for a trained courtier, only that he was too

good to be one.  He came to the house while I was there.  On the first

occasion he was accompanied by a Goorkha youth, named Sundar Lall, an

employee in the Darjiling News office, who acted as interpreter.  But we

soon found out that the peculiar dialect of Hindi which he spoke was

intelligible to some of us without any interpreter, and so there was

none needed on subsequent occasions.  On the first day we put him some

general questions about Tibet and the Gelugpa sect, to which he said he

belonged, and his answers corroborated the statements of Bogle, Turnour

and other travelers.  On the second day we asked him if he had heard of

any persons in Tibet who possessed extraordinary powers besides the

great lamas.  He said there were such men;  that they were not regular

lamas, but far higher than they, and generally lived in the mountains

beyond Tchigatze and also near the city of Lhassa.  These men, he said,

produce many and very wonderful phenomena or "miracles," and some of

their Chelas, or Lotoos, as they are called in Tibet, cure the sick by

giving them to eat the rice which they crush out of the paddy with their

hands, &c. Then one of us had a glorious idea.  Without saying one word,

the above-mentioned portrait of the Mahatma Koothoomi was shown to him.

He looked at it for a few seconds, and then, as though suddenly

recognizing it, he made a profound reverence to the portrait, and said

it was the likeness of a Chohan (Mahatma) whom he had seen.  Then he

began rapidly to describe the Mahatma's dress and naked arms;  then

suiting the action to the word, he took off his outer cloak, and baring

his arms to the shoulder, made the nearest approach to the figure in the

portrait, in the adjustment of his dress.

 

He said he had seen the Mahatma in question accompanied by a numerous

body of Gylungs, about that time of the previous year (beginning of

October 1881) at a place called Giansi, two days' journey southward of

Tchigatze, whither the narrator dad gone to make purchases for his

trade.  On being asked the name of the Mahatma, he said to our unbounded

surprise, "They are called Koothum-pa."  Being cross-examined and asked

what he meant by "they," and whether he was naming one man or many, he

replied that the Koothum-pas were many, but there was only one man or

chief over them of that name;  the disciples being always called after

the names of their guru.  Hence the name of the latter being Koot-hum,

that of his disciples was "Koot-hum-pa."  Light was shed upon this

explanation by a Tibetan dictionary, where we found that the word "pa"

means "man;"  "Bod-pa" is a "man of Bod or Thibet," &c.  Similarly

Koothum-pa means man or disciple of Koothoom or Koothoomi.  At Giansi,

the pedlar said, the richest merchant of the place went to the Mahatma,

who had stopped to rest in the midst of an extensive field, and asked

him to bless him by coming to his house.  The Mahatma replied, he was

better where he was, as he had to bless the whole world, and not any

particular man.  The people, and among them our friend Sundook, took

their offerings to the Mahatma, but he ordered them to be distributed

among the poor.  Sundook was exhorted by the Mahatma to pursue his trade

in such a way as to injure no one, and warned that such was the only

right way to prosperity.  On being told that people in India refused to

believe that there were such men as the Brothers in Tibet, Sundook

offered to take any voluntary witness to that country, and convince us,

through him, as to the genuineness of their existence, and remarked that

if there were no such men in Tibet, he would like to know where they

were to be found.  It being suggested to him that some people refused to

believe that such men existed at all, he got very angry.  Tucking up the

sleeve of his coat and shirt, and disclosing a strong muscular arm, he

declared that he would fight any man who would suggest that he had said

anything but the truth.

 

On being shown a peculiar rosary of beads belonging to Madame Blavatsky,

the pedlar said that such things could only be got by those to whom the

Tesshu Lama presented them, as they could be got for no amount of money

elsewhere.  When the Chela who was with us put on his sleeveless coat

and asked him whether he recognized the latter's profession by his

dress, the pedlar answered that he was a Gylung and then bowing down to

him took the whole thing as a matter of course.  The witnesses in this

case were Babu Nobin Krishna Bannerji, deputy magistrate, Berhampore,

M.R. Ry. Ramaswamiyer Avergal, district registrar, Madura (Madras), the

Goorkha gentleman spoken of before, all the family of the first-named

gentleman, and the writer.

 

Now for the other piece of corroborative evidence.  This time it came

most accidentally into my possession.  A young Bengali Brahmachari, who

had only a short time previous to our meeting returned from Tibet and

who was residing then at Dehradun, in the North-Western Provinces of

India, at the house of my grandfather-in-law, the venerable Babu

Devendra Nath Tagore of the Brahmo Samaj, gave most unexpectedly, in the

presence of a number of respectable witnesses, the following account:--

 

On the 15th of the Bengali month of Asar last (1882). being the 12th day

of the waxing moon, he met some Tibetans, called the Koothoompas, and

their guru in a field near Taklakhar, a place about a day's journey from

the Lake of Manasarawara.  The guru and most of his disciples, who were

called gylungs, wore sleeveless coats over under-garments of red.  The

complexion of the guru was very fair, and his hair, which was not parted

but combed back, streamed down his shoulders.  When the Brahmachani

first saw the Mahatma he was reading in a book, which the Brahmachari

was informed by one of the gylungs was the Rig Veda.

 

The guru saluted him, and asked him where he was coming from.  On

finding the latter had not had anything to eat, the guru commanded that

he should be given some ground gram (Sattoo) and tea.  As the

Brahmachari could not get any fire to cook food with, the guru asked

for, and kindled a cake of dry cow-dung--the fuel used in that country

as well as in this--by simply blowing upon it, and gave it to our

Brahmachari.  The latter assured us that he had often witnessed the same

phenomenon, produced by another guru or chohan, as they are called in

Tibet, at Gauri, a place about a day's journey from the cave of Tarchin,

on the northern side of Mount Kailas.  The keeper of a flock, who was

suffering from rheumatic fever came to the guru, who gave him a few

grains of rice, crushed out of paddy, which the guru had in his hand,

and the sick man was cured then and there.

 

Before he parted company with the Koothumpas and their guru, the

Brahmachari found that they were going to attend a festival held on the

banks of the Lake of Manasarawara, and that thence they intended to

proceed to the Kailas mountains.

 

The above statement was on several occasions repeated by the Brahmachari

in the presence (among others) of Babu Dwijender Nath Tagore of

Jorasanko, Calcutta;  Babu Cally Mohan Ghose of the Trigonometrical

Surcey of India, Dehradun;  Babu Cally Cumar Chatterij of the same

place;  Babu Gopi Mohan Ghosh of Dacca; Babu Priya Nath Sastri, clerk to

Babu Devender Nath Tagore, and the writer.  Comments would here seem

almost superfluous, and the facts might very well have been left to

speak for themselves to a fair and intelligent jury.  But the averseness

of people to enlarge their field of experience and the wilful

misrepresentation of designing persons know no bounds.  The nature of

the evidence here adduced is of an unexceptional character.  Both

witnesses were met quite accidentally.  Even if it be granted, which we

certainly do not for a moment grant, that the Tibetan pedlar, Sundook,

had been interviewed by some interested person, and induced to tell an

untruth, what can be conceived to have been the motive of the

Brahmachari, one belonging to a religious body noted for their

truthfulness, and having no idea as to the interest the writer took in

such things, in inventing a romance, and how could he make it fit

exactly with the statements of the Tibetan pedlar at the other end of

the country?  Uneducated persons are no doubt liable to deceive

themselves in many matters, but these statements dealt only with such

disunited facts as fell within the range of the narrator's eyes and

ears, and had nothing to do with his judgment or opinion.  Thus, when

the pedlar's statement is coupled with that of the Dehradun Brahmachari,

there is, indeed, no room left for any doubt as to the truthfulness of

either.  It may here be mentioned that the statement of the Brahmachari

was not the result of a series of leading questions, but formed part of

the account he voluntarily gave of his travels during the year, and that

he is almost entirely ignorant of the English language, and had, to the

best of my knowledge, information and belief, never even so much as

heard of the name of Theosophy.  Now, if any one refuses to accept the

mutually corroborative but independent testimonies of the Tibetan pedlar

of Darjiling and the Brahmachari of Dehradun on the ground that they

support the genuineness of facts not ordinarily falling within the

domain of one's experience, all I can say is that it is the very miracle

of folly.  It is, on the other hand, most unshakably established upon

the evidence of several of his Chelas, that the Mahatma Koothoomi is a

living person like any of us, and that moreover he was seen by two

persons on two different occasions.  This will, it is to be hoped,

settle for ever the doubts of those who believe in the genuineness of

occult phenomena, but put them down to the agency of "spirits."  Mark

one circumstance.  It may be argued that during the pedlar's stay at

Darjiling, Madame Blavatsky was also there, and, who knows, she might

have bribed him (!!) into saying what he said.  But no such thing can be

urged in the case of the Dehradun Brahmachari.  He knew neither the

pedlar nor Madame Blavatsky, had never heard of Colonel Olcott, having

just returned from his prolonged journey, and had no idea that I was a

Fellow of the Society.  His testimony was entirely voluntary.  Some

others, who admit that Mahatmas exist, but that there is no proof of

their connection with the Theosophical Society, will be pleased to see

that there is no a priori impossibility in those great souls taking an

interest in such a benevolent Society as ours.  Consequently it is a

gratuitous insult to a number of self-sacrificing men and women to

reject their testimony without a fair hearing.

 

I purposely leave aside all proofs which are already before the public.

Each set of proofs is conclusive in itself, and the cumulative effect of

all is simply irresistible.

 

--Mohini M. Chatterji

 

 

 

 

Interview with a Mahatma

 

 

At the time I left home for the Himalayas in search of the Supreme

Being, having adopted Brahmacharyashrama (religious mendicancy), I was

quite ignorant of the fact that there was any such philosophical sect as

the Theosophists existing in India, who believed in the existence of the

Mahatmas or "superior persons."  This and other facts connected with my

journey are perfectly correct as already published, and so need not be

repeated or contradicted.  Now I beg to give a fuller account of my

interview with the Mahatmas.

 

Before and after I met the so-called Mahatma Koothum-pa, I had the good

fortune of seeing in person several other Mahatmas of note, a detailed

account of whom, I hope, should time allow, to write to you by-and-by.

Here I wish to say something about Koothum-pa only.

 

When I was on my way to Almora from Mansarowar and Kailas, one day I had

nothing with me to eat.  I was quite at a loss how to get on without

food.  There being no human habitation in that part of the country, I

could expect no help, but pray to God, and take my way patiently on.

Between Mansarowar and Taklakhal, by the side of a road, I observed a

tent pitched and several Sadhus (holy men), called Chohans, sitting

outside it who numbered about seventeen in all.  As to their dress, &c.,

what Babu M.M. Chatterji says is quite correct.  When I went to them

they entertained me very kindly, and saluted me by uttering, "Ram Ram."

Returning their salutations, I sat down with them, and they entered upon

conversation with me on different subjects, asking me first the place I

was coming from and whither I was going.  There was a chief of them

sitting inside the tent, and engaged in reading a book.  I inquired

about his name and the book he was reading from, one of his Chelas, who

answered me in rather a serious tone, saying that his name was Guru

Koothum-pa, and the book he was reading was Rig Veda.  Long before, I

had been told by some Pundits of Bengal that the Tibetan Lamas were

well-acquainted with the Rig Veda.  This proved what they had told me.

After a short time, when his reading was over, he called me in by one of

his Chelas, and I went to him.  He, also bidding me "Ram Ram," received

me very gently and courteously, and began to talk with me mildly in pure

Hindi.  He addressed me in words such as follows:--"You should remain

here for some time and see the fair at Mansarowar, which is to come off

shortly. Here you will have plenty of time and suitable retreats for

meditation, &c.  I will help you in whatever I can."  He spoke as above

for some time, and I replied that what he said was right, and that I

would gladly have stayed, but there was some reason which prevented me.

He understood my object immediately, and then, having given me some

private advice as to my spiritual progress, bade me farewell.  Before

this he had come to know that I was hungry, and so wished me to take

some food.  He ordered one of his Chelas to supply me with food, which

he did immediately. In order to get hot water ready for my ablutions, he

prepared fire by blowing into a cow-dung cake, which burst into flames

at once.  This is a common practice among the Himalayan Lamas. It is

also fully explained by M.M. Chatterji, and so need not be repeated.

 

As long as I was there with the said Lama, he never persuaded me to

accept Buddhism or any other religion, but only said, "Hinduism is the

best religion;  you should believe in the Lord Mahadeva--he will do good

to you.  You are still quite a young man--do not be enticed away by the

necromancy of anybody." Having had a conversation with the Mahatma as

described above for about three hours, I at last took leave and resumed

my journey.

 

I am neither a Theosophist nor a sectarian, but am the worshipper of the

only Om.  As regards the Mahatma I personally saw, I dare say that he is

a great Mahatma.  By the fulfilment of certain of his prophecies, I am

quite convinced of his excellence.  Of all the Himalayan Mahatmas with

whom I had an interview, I never met a better Hindi speaker than he.  As

to his birth-place and the place of his residence, I did not ask him any

question.  Neither can I say if he is the Mahatma of the Theosophists.

As to the age of the Mahatma Koothum-pa, as I told Babu M. M. Chatterji

and others, he was an elderly looking man.

 

--Rajani Kant Brahmachari

 

 

 

 

The Secret Doctrine

 

 

Few experiences lying about the threshhold of occult studies are more

perplexing and tormenting than those which have to do with the policy of

the Brothers as to what shall, and what shall not, be revealed to the

outer world.  In fact, it is only by students at the same time tenacious

and patient--continuously anxious to get at the truths of occult

philosophy, but cool enough to bide their time when obstacles come in

the way--that what looks, at first sight, like a grudging and miserly

policy in this matter on the part of our illustrious teachers can be

endured.  Most men persist in judging all situations by the light of

their own knowledge and conceptions, and certainly by reference to

standards of right and wrong with which modern civilization is familiar

a pungent indictment may be framed against the holders of philosophical

truth.  They are regarded by their critics as keeping guard over their

intellectual possessions, declaring, "We have won this knowledge with

strenuous effort and at the cost of sacrifice and suffering;  we will

not make a present of it to luxurious idlers who have done nothing to

deserve it."  Most critics of the Theosophical Society and its

publications have fastened on this obvious idea, and have denounced the

policy of the Brothers as "selfish" and "unreasonable."

 

It has been argued that, as regards occult powers, the necessity for

keeping back all secrets which would enable unconscientious people to do

mischief, might be granted, but that no corresponding motives could

dictate the reservation of occult philosophical truth.

 

I have lately come to perceive certain considerations on this subject

which have generally been overlooked;  and it seems desirable to put

them forward at once;  especially as a very considerable body of occult

philosophical teaching is now before the world, and as those who

appreciate its value best, will sometimes be inclined to protest all the

more emphatically against the tardiness with which it has been served

out, and the curious precautions with which its further development is

even now surrounded.

 

In a nutshell, the explanation of the timid policy displayed is that the

Brothers are fully assured that the disclosure of that actual truth

(which constitutes the secret doctrine) about the origin of the World

and of Humanity--of the laws which govern their existence, and the

destinies to which they are moving on--is calculated to have a very

momentous effect on the welfare of mankind.  Great results ensue from

small beginnings, and the seeds of knowledge now being sown in the world

may ultimately bear prodigious harvest.  We, who are present merely at

the sowing, may not realize the magnitude and importance of the impulse

we are concerned in giving, but that impulse will roll on, and a few

generations hence will be productive of tremendous consequences one way

or the other.

 

For occult philosophy is no shadowy system of speculation like any of

the hundred philosophies with which the minds of men have been

overwhelmed;  it is the positive Truth, and by the time enough of it is

let out, it will be seen to be so by thousands of the greatest men who

may then be living in the world.  What will be the consequence?  The

first effect on the minds of all who come to understand it, is terribly

iconoclastic.  It drives out before it everything else in the shape of

religious belief.  It leaves no room for any conceptions belonging even

to the groundwork or foundation of ordinary religious faith.  And what

becomes then of all rules of right and wrong, of all sanctions for

morality?  Most assuredly there are rules of right and wrong thrilling

through every fibre of occult philosophy really higher than any which

commonplace theologies can teach;  far more cogent sanctions for

morality than can be derived at second-hand from the distorted doctrines

of exoteric religions;  but a complete transfer of the sanction will be

a process involving the greatest possible danger for mankind at the

time.  Bigots of all denominations will laugh at the idea of such a

transfer being seriously considered.  The orthodox Christian--confident

in the thousand of churches overshadowing all western lands, of the

enormous force engaged in the maintenance and propagation of the faith,

with the Pope and the Protestant hierarchy in alliance for this broad

purpose, with the countless clergy of all sects, and the fiery Salvation

Army bringing up the rear--will think that the earth itself is more

likely to crumble into ruin than the irresistible authority of Religion

to be driven back.  They are all counting, however, without the progress

of enlightenment. The most absurd religions die hard;  but when the

intellectual classes definitively reject them, they die, with throes of

terrible agony, may be, and, perhaps, like Samson in the Temple, but

they cannot permanently outlive a conviction that they are false in the

leading minds of the age.  Just what has been said of Christianity may

be said of Mahomedanism and Brahminism. Little or no risk is run while

occult literature aims merely at putting a reasonable construction on

perverted tenets--in showing people that truth may lurk behind even the

strangest theologic fictions.  And the lover of orthodoxy, in either of

the cases instanced, may welcome the explanation with complacency.  For

him also, as for the Christian, the faith which he professes--

sanctioned by what looks like a considerable antiquity to the very

limited vision of uninitiated historians, and supported by the

attachment of millions grown old in its service and careful to educate

their children in the convictions that have served their turn--is

founded on a rock which has its base in the foundations of the world.

Fragmentary teachings of occult philosophy seem at first to be no more

than annotations on the canonical doctrine.  They may even embellish it

with graceful interpretations of its symbolism, parts of which may have

seemed to require apology, when ignorantly taken at the foot of the

letter.  But this is merely the beginning of the attack.  If occult

philosophy gets before the world with anything resembling completeness,

it will so command the assent of earnest students that for them nothing

else of that nature will remain standing. And the earnest students in

such eases must multiply. They are multiplying now even, merely on the

strength of the little that has been revealed.  True, as yet--for some

time to come--the study will be, as it were, the whim of a few;  but

"those who know," know among other things that, give it fair-play, and

it must become the subject of enthusiasm with all advanced thinkers. And

what is to happen when the world is divided into two camps--the whole

forces of intellectuality and culture on the one side, those of

ignorance and superstitious fanaticism on the other? With such a war as

that impending, the adepts, who will be conscious that they prepared the

lists and armed the combatants, will require some better justification

for their policy before their own consciences than the reflection that,

in the beginning, people accused them of selfishness, and of keeping a

miserly guard over their knowledge, and so goaded them with this taunt

that they were induced to set the ball rolling.

 

There is no question, be it understood, as to the relative merits of the

moral sanctions that are afforded by occult philosophy and those which

are distilled from the worn-out materials of existing creeds.  If the

world could conceivably be shunted at one coup from the one code of

morals to the other, the world would be greatly the better for the

change.  But the change cannot be made all at once, and the transition

is most dangerous.  On the other hand, it is no less dangerous to take

no steps in the direction of that transition.  For though existing

religions may be a great power--the Pope ruling still over millions of

consciences if not over towns and States, the name of the Prophet being

still a word to conjure with in war, the forces of Brahmanical custom

holding countless millions in willing subjection--in spite of all this,

the old religions are sapped and past their prime.  They are in process

of decay, for they are losing their hold on the educated minority;  it

is still the case that in all countries the camps of orthodoxy include

large numbers of men distinguished by intellect and culture, but one by

one their numbers are diminishing.  Five-and-twenty years only, in

Europe, have made a prodigious change.  Books are written now that pass

almost as matters of course which would have been impossible no further

back than that.  No further back, books thrilled society with surprise

and excitement, which the intellectual world would now ignore as

embodying the feeblest commonplaces.  The old creeds, in fact, are

slowly losing their hold upon mankind--more slowly in the more

deliberately moving East than Europe, but even here by degrees also--and

a time will come, whether occult philosophy is given out to take their

place or not, when they will no longer afford even such faulty sanctions

for moral conduct and right as they have supplied in times gone by.

Therefore it is plain that something must be given out to take their

place, and hence the determinations of which this movement in which we

are engaged is one of the undulations--these very words some of the

foremost froth upon the advancing wave.

 

But surely, when something which must be done is yet very dangerous in

the doing, the persons who control the operations in progress may be

excused for exercising the utmost caution. Readers of Theosophical

literature will be aware how bitterly our adept Brothers have been

criticized for choosing to take their own time and methods in the task

of partially communicating their knowledge to the world.  Here in India

these criticisms have been indignantly resented by the passionate

loyalty to the Mahatmas that is so widely spread among Hindus--resented

more by instinct than reason in some cases perhaps, though in others, no

doubt, as a consequence of a full appreciation of all that is being now

explained, and of other considerations beside.  But in Europe such

criticisms will have seemed hard to answer.  The answer is really

embodied, however imperfectly, in the views of the situation now set

forth.  We ordinary mortals in the world work as men traveling by the

light of a lantern in an unknown country. We see but a little way to the

right and left, only a little way behind even.  But the adepts work as

men traveling by daylight, with the further advantage of being able at

will to get up in a balloon and survey vast expanses of lake and plain

and forest.

 

The choice of time and methods for communicating occult knowledge to the

world necessarily includes the choice of intermediary agent.  Hence the

double set of misconceptions in India and Europe, each adapted to the

land of its origin.  In India, where knowledge of the Brothers'

existence and reverence for their attributes is widely diffused, it is

natural that persons who may be chosen for their serviceability rather

than for their merits, as the recipients of their direct teaching,

should be regarded with a feeling resembling jealousy.  In Europe, the

difficulty of getting into any sort of relations with the fountain-head

of Eastern philosophy is regarded as due to an exasperating

exclusiveness on the part of the adepts in that philosophy, which

renders it practically worth no man's while to devote himself to the

task of soliciting their instruction.  But neither feeling is reasonable

when considered in the light of the explanations now put forward.  The

Brothers can consider none but public interests, in the largest sense of

the words, in throwing out the first experimental flashes of occult

revelation into the world. They can only employ agents on whom they can

rely for doing the work as they may wish it done--or, at all events, in

no manner which may be widely otherwise.  Or they can only protect the

task on which they are concerned in another way.  They may consent

sometimes to a very much more direct mode of instruction than that

provided through intermediary agents for the world at large, in the

cases of organized societies solemnly pledged to secrecy, for the time

being at all events, in regard to the teaching to be conveyed to them.

In reference to such societies, the Brothers need not be on the watch to

see that the teaching is not worked up for the service of the world in a

way they would consider, for any reasons of their own, likely to be

injurious to final results or dangerous.  Different men will assimilate

the philosophy to be unfolded in different ways:  for some it will be

too iconoclastic altogether, and its further pursuit, after a certain

point is reached, unwelcome.  Such persons, entering too hastily on the

path of exploration, will be able to drop off from the undertaking

whenever they like, if thoroughly pledged to secrecy in the first

instance, without being a source of embarrassment afterwards, as regards

the steady prosecution of the work in hand by other more resolute, or

less sensitive, labourers.  It may be that in some such societies, if

any should be formed in which occult philosophy may be secretly studied,

some of the members will be as well fitted as, or better than, any other

persons employed elsewhere to put the teachings in shape for

publication, but in that case it is to be presumed that special

qualifications will eventually make themselves apparent.  The meaning

and good sense of the restrictions, provisionally imposed meanwhile,

will be plain enough to any impartial person on reflection, even though

their novelty and strangeness may be a little resented at the first

glance.

 

--Lay Chela

 

 

 

 

HISTORICAL

 

 

The Puranas on the Dynasty of the Moryas and on Koothoomi

 

 

It is stated in Matsya Puran, chapter cclxxii., that ten Moryas would

reign over India, and would be succeeded by the Shoongas, and that Shata

Dhanva will be the first of these ten Maureyas (or Moryas).

 

In Vishnu Purana (Book IV. chapter iv.) it is stated that there was in

the Soorya dynasty a king called Moru, who through the power of devotion

(Yoga) is said to be still living in the village called Katapa, in the

Himalayas (vide vol. iii. p. 197, by Wilson), and who, in a future age,

will be the restorer of the Kshatriya race, in the Solar dynasty, that

is, many thousands of years hence.  In another part of the same Purana

(Book IV. chapter xxiv.) it is stated that, "upon the cessation of the

race of Nanda, the Moryas* will possess the earth, for Kautilya will

place Chandragupta on the throne."  Col. Tod considers Morya, or Maurya,

a corruption of Mori, the name of a Rajput tribe.

 

-------

* The particulars of this legend are recorded in the Atthata katha of

the Uttaraviharo priests.

-------

 

The Commentary on the Mahavanso thinks that the princes of the town Mori

were thence called Mauryas.  Vachaspattya, a Sanskrit Encyclopaedia,

places the village of Katapa on the northern side of the Himalayas--

hence in Tibet.  The same is stated in chapter xii. (Skanda) of

Bhagavat, vol. iii. p. 325.  The Vayu Purana seems to declare that Moru

will re-establish the Kshatriyas in the nineteenth coming Yuga.  In

chapter vi. Book III. of Vishnu Purana, a Rishi called Koothoomi is

mentioned.  Will any of our Brothers tell us how our Mahatmas stand to

these revered personages?

 

--R. Ragoonath Row

 

 

 

Editor's Note

 

In the Buddhist Mahavanso, Chandagatto, or Chandragupta, Asoka's

grandfather, is called a prince of the Moryan dynasty as he certainly

was--or rather as they were, for there were several Chandraguptas.  This

dynasty, as said in the same book, began with certain Kshatriyas

(warriors) of the Sakya line closely related to Gautama Buddha, who

crossing the Himavanto (Himalayas) "discovered a delightful location,

well watered, and situated in the midst of a forest of lofty bo and

other trees.  There they founded a town, which was called by its Sakya

lords, Morya-Nagara."  Prof. Max Muller would see in this legend a

made-up story for two reasons:  (1) A desire on the part of Buddhists to

connect their king Asoka, "the beloved of gods," with Buddha, and thus

nullify the slanders set up by the Brahmanical opponents of Buddhism to

the effect that Asoka and Chandragupta were Sudras; and (2) because this

document does not dovetail with his own theories and chronology based on

the fanciful stories of the Greek-Megasthenes and others.  It was not

the princes of Morya-Nagara who received their name from the Rajput

tribe of Mori, but the latter that became so well known as being

composed of the descendants of the Moryan sovereign of Morya-Nagara.

Some light is thrown on the subsequent destiny of that dynasty in

"Replies to an English F.T.S." (See ante.)  The name of Rishi Koothoomi

is mentioned in more than one Purana, and his Code is among the eighteen

Codes written by various Rishis, and preserved at Calcutta in the

library of the Asiatic Society.  But we have not been told whether there

is any connection between our Mahatma of that name and the Rishi, and we

do not feel justified in speculating upon the subject.  All we know is,

that both are Northern Brahmans, while the Moryas are Kshatriyas.  If

any of our Brothers know more, or can discover anything relating to the

subject in the Sacred Books, we shall hear of it with pleasure. The

words:  "The Moryas will possess the earth, for Kautilya will place

Chandragupta on the throne," have in our occult philosophy a dual

meaning.  In one sense they relate to the days of early Buddhism, when a

Chandragupta (Morya) was the king "of all the earth," i.e., of Brahmans,

who believed themselves the highest and only representatives of humanity

for whom earth was evolved. The second meaning is purely esoteric.

Every adept or genuine Mahatma is said to "possess the earth," by the

power of his occult knowledge.  Hence, a series of ten Moryas, all

initiated adepts, would be regarded by the occultists, and referred to

as "possessing all the earth," or all its knowledge.  The names of

"Chandragupta" and "Kautilya" have also an esoteric significance. Let

our Brother ponder over their Sanskrit meaning, and he will perhaps see

what bearing the phrase--"for Kautilya will place Chandragupta upon the

throne"--has upon the Moryas possessing the earth.  We would also remind

our Brother that the word Itihasa, ordinarily translated as "history,"

is defined by Sanskrit authorities to be the narrative of the lives of

some August personages, conveying at the same time meanings of the

highest moral and occult importance.

 

 

 

 

The Theory of Cycles

 

 

It is now some time since this theory--which was first propounded in the

oldest religion of the world, Vedaism--has been gradually coming into

prominence again.  It was taught by various Greek philosophers, and

afterwards defended by the Theosophists of the Middle Ages, but came to

be flatly denied by the wise men of the West, the world of negations.

Contrary to the rule, it is the men of science themselves who have

revived this theory. Statistics of events of the most varied nature are

fast being collected and collated with the seriousness demanded by

important scientific questions.  Statistics of wars and of the periods

(or cycles) of the appearance of great men--at least those who have been

recognized as such by their contemporaries;  statistics of the periods

of development and progress of large commercial centres;  of the rise

and fall of arts and sciences;  of cataclysms, such as earthquakes,

epidemics;  periods of extraordinary cold and heat;  cycles of

revolutions, and of the rise and fall of empires, &c.:  all these are

subjected in turn to the analysis of the minutest mathematical

calculations. Finally, even the occult significance of numbers in names

of persons and cities, in events, and like matters, receives unwonted

attention.  If, on the one hand, a great portion of the educated public

is running into atheism and scepticism, on the other hand, we find an

evident current of mysticism forcing its way into science.  It is the

sign of an irrepressible need in humanity to assure itself that there is

a power paramount over matter;  an occult and mysterious law which

governs the world, and which we should rather study and closely watch,

trying to adapt ourselves to it, than blindly deny, and dash ourselves

vainly against the rock of destiny.  More than one thoughtful mind,

while studying the fortunes and reverses of nations and great empires,

has been struck by one identical feature in their history--namely, the

inevitable recurrence of similar events, and after equal periods of

time.  This relation between events is found to be substantially

constant, though differences in the outward form of details no doubt

occur.  Thus the belief of the ancients in their astrologers,

soothsayers and prophets might have been warranted by the verification

of many of their most important predictions, without these

prognostications of future events implying of necessity anything very

miraculous.  The soothsayers and augurs having occupied in days of the

old civilizations the very same position now occupied by our historians,

astronomers and meteorologists, there was nothing more wonderful in the

fact of the former predicting the downfall of an empire or the loss of a

battle, than in the latter predicting the return of a comet, a change of

temperature, or perhaps the final conquest of Afghanistan.  Both studied

exact sciences;  for, if the astronomer of today draws his observations

from mathematical calculations, the astrologer of old also based his

prognostication upon no less acute and mathematically correct

observations of the ever-recurring cycles.  And, because the secret of

this ancient science is now being lost, does that give any warrant for

saying that it never existed, or that to believe in it, one must be

ready to swallow "magic," "miracles" and the like?  "If, in view of the

eminence to which modern science has reached, the claim to prophesy

future events must be regarded as either child's play or a deliberate

deception," says a writer in the Novoye Vremja, "then we can point at

science which, in its turn, has now taken up and placed on record the

question, whether there is or is not in the constant repetition of

events a certain periodicity;  in other words, whether these events

recur after a fixed and determined period of years with every nation;

and if a periodicity there be, whether this periodicity is due to blind

chance, or depends on the same natural laws which govern the phenomena

of human life."  Undoubtedly the latter.  And the writer has the best

mathematical proof of it in the timely appearance of such works as that

of Dr. E. Zasse, and others. Several learned works treating upon this

mystical subject have appeared of late, and to some of these works and

calculations we shall presently refer.  A very suggestive work by a

well-known German scientist, E. Zasse, appears in the Prussian Journal

of Statistics, powerfully corroborating the ancient theory of cycles.

These periods which bring around ever-recurring events, begin from the

infinitesimally small--say of ten years--rotation, and reach to cycles

which require 250, 500, 700, and 1000 years to effect their revolutions

around themselves, and within one another.  All are contained within the

Maha-Yug, the "Great Age" or Cycle of Manu's calculation, which itself

revolves between two eternities--the "Pralayas" or Nights of Brahma.

As, in the objective world of matter, or the system of effects, the

minor constellations and planets gravitate each and all around the sun,

so in the world of the subjective, or the system of causes, these

innumerable cycles all gravitate between that which the finite intellect

of the ordinary mortal regards as eternity, and the still finite, but

more profound, intuition of the sage and philosopher views as but an

eternity within THE ETERNITY.  "As above, so it is below," runs the old

Hermetic maxim.  As an experiment in this direction, Dr. Zasse selected

the statistical investigations of all the wars recorded in history, as a

subject which lends itself more easily to scientific verification than

any other.  To illustrate his subject in the simplest and most easily

comprehensible manner, Dr. Zasse represents the periods of war and the

periods of peace in the shape of small and large wave-lines running over

the area of the Old World.  The idea is not a new one, for the image was

used for similar illustrations by more than one ancient and medieval

mystic, whether in words or pictures--by Henry Kunrath, for example.

But it serves well its purpose, and gives us the facts we now want.

Before he treats, however, of the cycles of wars, the author brings in

the record of the rise and fall of the world's great empires, and shows

the degree of activity they have played in the Universal History.  He

points out the fact that if we divide the map of the Old World into six

parts--into Eastern, Central, and Western Asia, Eastern and Western

Europe, and Egypt--then we shall easily perceive that every 250 years an

enormous wave passes over these areas, bringing to each in its turn the

events it has brought to the one next preceding.  This wave we may call

"the historical wave" of the 250 years' cycle.

 

The first of these waves began in China 2000 years B.C., in the "golden

age" of this empire, the age of philosophy, of discoveries, of reforms.

"In 1750 B.C. the Mongolians of Central Asia establish a powerful

empire.  In 1500, Egypt rises from its temporary degradation and extends

its sway over many parts of Europe and Asia;  and about 1250, the

historical wave reaches and crosses over to Eastern Europe, filling it

with the spirit of the Argonautic Expedition, and dies out in 1000 B.C.

at the Siege of Troy."

 

The second historical wave appears about that time in Central Asia.

"The Scythians leave her steppes, and inundate towards the year 750 B.C.

the adjoining countries, directing themselves towards the south and

west;  about the year 500, in Western Asia begins an epoch of splendour

for ancient Persia;  and the wave moves on to the east of Europe, where,

about 250 B.C., Greece reaches her highest state of culture and

civilization--and further on to the west, where, at the birth of Christ,

the Roman Empire finds itself at its apogee of power and greatness."

 

Again, at this period we find the rising of a third historical wave at

the far East.  After prolonged revolutions, about this time, China forms

once more a powerful empire, and its arts, sciences and commerce

flourish again.  Then 250 years later, we find the Huns appearing from

the depths of Central Asia;  in the year 500 A.D., a new and powerful

Persian kingdom is formed;  in 750--in Eastern Europe--the Byzantine

empire;  and in the year 1000--on its western side--springs up the

second Roman Power, the Empire of the Papacy, which soon reaches an

extraordinary development of wealth and brilliancy.

 

At the same time the fourth wave approaches from the Orient. China is

again flourishing;  in 1250, the Mongolian wave from Central Asia has

overflowed and covered an enormous area of land, including Russia.

About 1500, in Western Asia the Ottoman Empire rises in all its might,

and conquers the Balkan peninsula;  but at the same time, in Eastern

Europe, Russia throws off the Tartar yoke;  and about 1750, during the

reign of Empress Catherine, rises to an unexpected grandeur, and covers

itself with glory. The wave ceaselessly moves further on to the West;

and beginning with the middle of the past century, Europe is living over

an epoch of revolutions and reforms, and, according to the author, "if

it is permissible to prophesy, then about the year 2000, Western Europe

will have lived through one of those periods of culture and progress so

rare in history."  The Russian press taking the cue believes, that

"towards those days the Eastern Question will be finally settled, the

national dissensions of the European peoples will come to an end, and

the dawn of the new millennium will witness the abolition of armies and

an alliance between all the European empires." The signs of regeneration

are also fast multiplying in Japan and China, as if pointing to the rise

of a new historical wave in the extreme East.

 

 

If from the cycle of two-and-a-half centuries we descend to that which

leaves its impress every century, and, grouping together the events of

ancient history, mark the development and rise of empires, then we shall

find that, beginning from the year 700 B.C., the centennial wave pushes

forward, bringing into prominence the following nations, each in its

turn--the Assyrians, the Medes, the Babylonians, the Persians, the

Greeks, the Macedonians, the Carthagenians, the Romans, and the Teutons.

 

The striking periodicity of the wars in Europe is also noticed by Dr. E.

Zasse.  Beginning with 1700 A.D., every ten years have been signalized

by either a war or a revolution.  The periods of the strengthening and

weakening of the warlike excitement of the European nations represent a

wave strikingly regular in its periodicity, flowing incessantly, as if

propelled onward by some fixed inscrutable law.  This same mysterious

law seems also to connect these events with the astronomical wave or

cycle, which governs the periodicity of solar spots.  The periods when

the European powers have shown the most destructive energy are marked by

a cycle of fifty years' duration.  It would be too long and tedious to

enumerate them from the beginning of history.  We may, therefore, limit

our study to the cycle beginning with the year 1712, when all the

European nations were fighting each other in the Northern, and the

Turkish wars, and the war for the throne of Spain.  About 1761, the

"Seven Years' War";  in 1810, the wars of Napoleon I.  Towards 1861, the

wave has been a little deflected from its regular course;  but, as if to

compensate for it, or propelled, perhaps, with unusual force, the years

directly preceding, as well as those which followed it, left in history

the records of the most fierce and bloody wars--the Crimean War in the

former, and the American Civil War in the latter period. The periodicity

in the wars between Russia and Turkey appears peculiarly striking, and

represents a very characteristic wave. At first the intervals between

the cycles of thirty years' duration--1710, 1740, 1770 then these

intervals diminish, and we have a cycle of twenty years--1790, 1810,

1829-30;  then the intervals widen again--1853 and 1878.  But if we take

note of the whole duration of the in-flowing tide of the war-like cycle,

then we shall have at the centre of it--from 1768 to 1812--three wars of

seven years' duration each, and at both ends, wars of two years.

 

Finally, the author comes to the conclusion that, in view of facts, it

becomes thoroughly impossible to deny the presence of a regular

periodicity in the excitement of both mental and physical forces in the

nations of the world.  He proves that in the history of all the peoples

and empires of the Old World, the cycles marking the millenniums, the

centennials as well as the minor ones of fifty and ten years' duration,

are the most important, inasmuch as neither of them has ever yet failed

to bring in its train some more or less marked event in the history of

the nation swept over by these historical waves.

 

The history of India is one which, of all histories, is the most vague

and least satisfactory.  Yet were its consecutive great events noted

down, and its annals well searched, the law of cycles would be found to

have asserted itself here as plainly as in every other country in

respect of its wars, famines, political exigencies, and other matters.

 

In France, a meteorologist of Paris went to the trouble of compiling the

statistics of the coldest seasons, and discovered that those years which

had the figure 9 in them had been marked by the severest winters.  His

figures run thus:--in 859 A.D., the northern part of the Adriatic Sea

was frozen, and was covered for three months with ice.  In 1179, In the

most moderate zones, the earth was covered with several feet of snow.

In 1209, in France the depth of snow and the bitter cold caused such a

scarcity of fodder that most of the cattle perished in that country.  In

1249, the Baltic Sea between Russia, Norway and Sweden remained frozen

for many months, and communication was kept up by sleighs. In 1339,

there was such a terrific winter in England, that vast numbers of people

died of starvation and exposure.  In 1409, the river Danube was frozen

from its sources to its mouth in the Black Sea.

 

In 1469, all the vineyards and orchards perished in consequence of the

frost.  In 1609, in France, Switzerland and Upper Italy, people had to

thaw their bread and provisions before they could use them.  In 1639,

the Harbour of Marseilles was covered with ice to a great distance.  In

1659, all the rivers in Italy were frozen.  In 1699, the winter in

France and Italy proved the severest and longest of all.  The prices for

articles of food were so much raised that half of the population died of

starvation.  In 1709, the winter was no less terrible.  The ground was

frozen in France, Italy and Switzerland to the depth of several feet;

and the sea, south as well as north, was covered with one compact and

thick crust of ice, many feet deep, and for a considerable distance in

the usually open sea.  Numbers of wild beasts, driven out by the cold

from their dens in the forests, sought refuge in villages and even

cities;  and the birds fell dead to the ground by hundreds.  In 1729,

1749 and 1769 (cycles of twenty years' duration), all the rivers and

streams were ice-bound all over France for many weeks, and all the fruit

trees perished.  In 1789, France was again visited by a very severe

winter.  In Paris, the thermometer stood at nineteen degrees of frost.

But the severest of all winters proved that of 1829.  For fifty-four

consecutive days all the roads in France were covered, with snow several

feet deep, and all the rivers were frozen.  Famine and misery reached

their climax in the country in that year.  In 1839, there was again in

France a most terrific and trying cold season.  And the winter of 1879

has asserted its statistical rights, and proved true to the fatal

influence of the figure 9.  The meteorologists of other countries are

invited to follow suit, and make their investigations likewise, for the

subject is certainly most fascinating as well as most instructive.

 

Enough has been shown, however, to prove that neither the ideas of

Pythagoras on the mysterious influence of numbers, nor the theories of

the ancient world-religions and philosophies are as shallow and

meaningless as some too forward thinkers would have had the world to

believe.

 

--H.P.B.

 

 

 

 

SCIENTIFIC

 

 

Odorigen and Jiva

 

 

Professor Yaeger of Stuttgart has made a very interesting study of the

sense of smell.  He starts from the fact well known in medical

jurisprudence, that the blood of an animal when treated by sulphuric, or

indeed by any other decomposing acid, smells like the animal itself to

which it belongs.  This holds good even after the blood has been long

dried.

 

Let us state before all what is to be understood by the smell of a

certain animal.  There is the pure, specific smell of the animal,

inherent in its flesh, or, as we shall see hereafter, in certain

portions of its flesh.  This smell is best perceived when the flesh is

gently boiling in water.  The broth thereby obtained contains the

specific taste and smell of the animal--I call it specific, because

every species, nay every variety of species, has its own peculiar taste

and smell.  Think of mutton broth, chicken broth, fish broth, &c. &c.  I

shall call this smell, the specific scent of the animal.  I need not say

that the scent of an animal is quite different from all such odours as

are generated within its organism, along with its various secretions and

excretions:  bile, gastric juice, sweat, &c.  These odours are again

different in the different species and varieties of animals.  The

cutaneous exhalation of the goat, the sheep, the donkey, widely differ

from each other;  and a similar difference prevails with regard to all

the other effluvia of these animals. In fact, as far as olfactory

experience goes, we may say that the odour of each secretion and

excretion of a certain species of animals is peculiar to itself, and

characteristically different in the similar products of another species.

 

By altering the food of an animal we may considerably alter all the

above-mentioned odours, scents, as well as smells;  yet essentially they

will always retain their specific odoriferous type.  All this is matter

of strict experience.

 

Strongly diffusive as all these odorous substances are, they permeate

the whole organism, and each of them contributes its share to what in

the aggregate constitutes the smell of the living animal.  It is

altogether an excrementitious smell tempered by the scent of the animal.

That excrementitious smell we shall henceforth simply call the smell, in

contradistinction to the scent of the animal.

 

To return after this not very pleasant, but nevertheless necessary

digression, to our subject.  Professor Yaeger found that blood, treated

by an acid, may emit the scent or the smell of the animal, according as

the acid is weak or strong.  A strong acid, rapidly disintegrating the

blood, brings out the animal's smell; a weak acid, the animal's scent.

 

We see, then, that in every drop of blood of a certain species of

animal, and we may as well say, in each of its blood corpuscles, and in

the last instance, in each of its molecules, the respective animal

species is fully represented, as to its odorant speciality, under both

aspects of scent and smell.

 

We have, then, on the one side, the fact before us that wherever we meet

in the animal kingdom with difference of shape, form, and construction,

so different as to constitute a class, a genus, or a family of its own,

there we meet at the same time with a distinct and specific scent and

smell.  On the other hand, we know that these specific odours are

invariably interblended with the very life-blood of the animal.  And

lastly, we know that these specific odours cannot be accounted for by

any agents taken up in the shape of food from the outer world.  We are,

then, driven to the conclusion that they are properties of the inner

animal;  that they, in other words, pertain to the specific protoplasm

of the animal concerned.

 

And thus our conclusion attains almost certainty, when we remember that

it stands the crucial test of experiment--that we need only decompose

the blood in order to find there what we contend to be an essential

ingredient of it.

 

I must now say a few words in explanation of the term protoplasm.

Protoplasm is a soft, gelatinous substance, transparent and homogeneous,

easily seen in large plant-cells;  it may be compared to the white of an

egg.  When at rest all sorts of vibratory, quivering and trembling

movements can be observed within its mass.  It forms the living material

in all vegetable and animal cells;  in fact, it is that component of the

body which really does the vital work.  It is the formative agent of all

living tissues.  Vital activity, in the broadest sense of the term,

manifests itself in the development of the germ into the complete

organism, repeating the type of its parents, and in the subsequent

maintenance of that organism in its integrity and both these functions

are exclusively carried on by the protoplasm.  Of course, there is a

good deal of chemical and mechanical work done in the organism, but

protoplasm is the formative agent of all the tissues and structures.

 

Of tissues and structures already formed, we may fairly say that they

have passed out of the realms of vitality, as they are destined to

gradual disintegration and decay in the course of life;  it is they that

are on the way of being cast out of the organism, when they have once

run through the scale of retrograde metamorphosis;  and it is they that

give rise to what we have called the smell of the animal.  What lives in

them is the protoplasm.

 

In the shape of food the outer world supplies the organism with all the

materials necessary for the building up of the constantly wasting

organic structures;  and, in the shape of heat, there comes from the

outer world that other element necessary for structural changes,

development and growth--the element of force. But the task of directing

all the outward materials to the development and maintenance of the

organism--in other words, the task of the director-general of the

organic economy falls to the protoplasm.

 

Now this wonderful substance, chemically and physically the same in the

highest animal and in the lowest plant, has been all along the puzzle of

the biologist.  How is it that in man protoplasm works out human

structure;  in fowl, fowl structure, &c. &c., while the protoplasm

itself appears to be everywhere the same? To Professor Yaeger belongs

the great merit of having shown us that the protoplasms of the various

species of plants and animals are not the same;  that each of them

contains, moreover, imbedded in its molecules, odorant substances

peculiar to the one species and not to the other.

 

That, on the other hand, those odorous substances are by no means

inactive bodies, may be inferred from their great volatility, known as

it is in physical science that volatility is owing to a state of atomic

activity.  Prevost has described two phenomena that are presented by

odorous substances.  One is that, when placed on water, they begin to

move;  and the other is, that a thin layer of water, extended on a

perfectly clean glass plate, retracts when such an odorous substance as

camphor is placed upon it.  Monsieur Ligeois has further shown that the

particles of an odorous body, placed on water, undergo a rapid division,

and that the movements of camphor, or of benzoic acid, are inhibited, or

altogether arrested, if an odorous substance be brought into contact

with the water in which they are moving.

 

Seeing, then, that odorous substances, when coming in contact with

liquid bodies, assume a peculiar motion, and impart at the same time

motion to the liquid body, we may fairly conclude that the specific

formative capacity of the protoplasm is owing, not to the protoplasm

itself, since it is everywhere alike, but to the inherent, specific,

odoriferous substances.

 

I shall only add that Professor Yaeger's theory may be carried farther

yet.  Each metal has also a certain taste and odour peculiar to itself;

in other words, they are also endowed with odoriferous substances.  And

this may help us to explain the fact that each metal, when crystallizing

out of a liquid solution, invariably assumes a distinct geometrical

form, by which it may be distinguished from any other.  Common salt, for

instance, invariably crystallizes in cubes, alum in octohedra, and so

on.

 

Professor Yaeger's theory explains further to us that other great

mystery of Nature--the transmission from parent to offspring of the

morphological speciality.  This is another puzzle of the biologist.

What is there in the embryonal germ that evolves out of the materials

stored up therein a frame similar to the parents?  In other words, what

is there that presides over the preservation of the species, working out

the miniature duplicate of the parents' configuration and character?  It

is the protoplasm, no doubt;  and the female ovum contains protoplasm in

abundance.  But neither the physicist nor the chemist can detect any

difference between the primordial germ, say of the fowl, and that of a

female of the human race.

 

In answer to this question--a question before which science stands

perplexed--we need only remember what has been said before about the

protoplasmic scent.  We have spoken before of the specific scent of the

animal as a whole.  We know, however, that every organ and tissue in a

given animal has again its peculiar scent and taste.  The scent and

taste of the liver, spleen, brain, &c., are quite different in the same

animal.

 

And if our theory is correct, then it could not be otherwise. Each of

these organs is differently constructed, and as variety of organic

structure is supposed to be dependent upon variety of scent, there must

necessarily be a specific cerebral scent, a specific splenetic scent, a

specific hepatic scent, &c. &c.  What we call, then, the specific scent

of the living animal must, therefore, be considered as the aggregate of

all the different scents of its organs.

 

When we see that a weak solution of sulphuric acid is capable of

disengaging from the blood the scent of the animal, we shall then bear

in mind that this odorous emanation contains particles of all the scents

peculiar to each tissue and organ of the animal.  When we further say

that each organ in a living animal draws by selective affinity from the

blood those materials which are necessary for its sustenance, we must

not forget that each organ draws at the same time by a similar selective

affinity the specific odorous substances requisite for its constructive

requirements.

 

We have now only to suppose that the embryonal germ contains, like the

blood itself, all the odorous substances pertaining to the various

tissues and organs of the parent, and we shall understand which is the

moving principle in the germ that evolves an offspring, shaped in the

image and after the likeness of the parents.

 

In plants it is the blossom which is entrusted with the function of

reproduction, and the odorous emanations accompanying that process are

well known.  There is strong reason to believe that something similar

prevails in the case of animals, as may be seen from an examination of

what embryologists call the aura seminalis.

 

Let us now inquire what the effects are of odours generated in the outer

world on animals.  The odorous impressions produced may be pleasant or

unpleasant, pleasant to one and unpleasant to another animal.  What is

it that constitutes this sensation of pleasure or displeasure?

Professor Yaeger answers, It is harmony or disharmony which makes all

the difference.  The olfactory organs of each animal are impregnated by

its own specific scent. Whenever the odorous waves of a substance

harmonize in their vibration with the odorous waves emanating from the

animal;  in other words, whenever they fall in and agree with each

other, an agreeable sensation is produced;  whenever the reverse takes

places, the sensation is disagreeable.  In this way it is that the odour

regulates the choice of the food on the part of the animal.  In a

similar way the sympathies and antipathies between the various animals

are regulated.  For every individual has not only its specific but also

its individual scent.  The selection between the sexes, or what, in the

case of the human race, is called love, has its mainspring in the

odorous harmony subsisting in the two individuals concerned.

 

This individual scent--a variation of the specific odorous type--alters

(within the limits of its speciality) with age, with the particular mode

of occupation, with the sex, with certain physiological conditions and

functions during life, with the state of health, and last, but not

least, with the state of our mind.

 

It is to be remembered that every time protoplasm undergoes

disintegration, specific odours are set free.  We have seen how

sulphuric acid, or heat, when boiling or roasting meat, brings out the

specific animal odour.  But it is an established fact in science, that

every physical or mental operation is accompanied by disintegration of

tissue;  consequently we are entitled to say that with every emotion

odours are being disengaged.  It can be shown that the quality of those

odours differ with the nature of the emotion.  The prescribed limits

prevent further pursuit of the subject;  I shall, therefore, content

myself by drawing some conclusions from Professor Yaeger's theory in the

light of the Esoteric Doctrine.

 

The phenomena of mesmeric cures find their full explanation in the

theory just enunciated.  For since the construction and preservation of

the organism, and of every organ in particular, is owing to specific

scents, we may fairly look upon disease in general as a disturbance of

the specific scent of the organism, and upon disease of a particular

organ of the body, as a disturbance of the specific scent pertaining to

that particular organ.  We have been hitherto in the habit of holding

the protoplasm responsible for all phenomena of disease.  We have now

come to learn that what acts in the protoplasm are the scents; we shall,

therefore, have to look to them as the ultimate cause of morbid

phenomena.  I have mentioned before the experiment of Mons. Ligeois,

showing that odoriferous substances, when brought in contact with water,

move;  and that the motion of one odoriferous substance may be

inhibited, or arrested altogether, by the presence of another

odoriferous substance.  Epidemic diseases, and the zymotic diseases in

particular, have, then, most likely their origin in some local odours

which inhibit the action of our specific organic odours.  In the case of

hereditary diseases, it is most likely the transmission of morbid

specific odours from parent to offspring that is the cause of the evil,

knowing, as we do, that in disease the natural specific odour is

altered, and must, therefore, have been altered in the diseased parent.

 

Now comes the mesmeriser.  He approaches the sick with the strong

determination to cure him.  This determination, or effort of the will,

is absolutely necessary, according to the agreement of all mesmerisers,

for his curative success.  Now an effort of the will is a mental

operation, and is, therefore, accompanied by tissue disintegration.  The

effort being purely mental, we may say it is accompanied by

disintegration of cerebral and nervous tissue. But disintegration of

organic tissue means, as we have seen before, disengagement of specific

scents;  the mesmeriser emits, then, during his operation, scents from

his own body.  And as the patient's sufferings are supposed to originate

from a deficiency or alteration of his own specific scent, we can well

see how the mesmeriser, by his mesmeric or odoriferous emanations, may

effect a cure.  He may supply the want of certain odoriferous substances

in the patient, or he may correct others by his own emanations, knowing,

as we do, from the experiment of Mons. Ligeois, that odorant matter does

act on odorant matter.

 

One remark more and I have done.  By the Esoteric Doctrine we are told

that the living body is divided into two parts:

 

1. The physical body, composed wholly of matter in its grossest and most

tangible form.

 

2. The vital principle (or Jiva), a form of force indestructible, and,

when disconnected with one set of atoms, becoming attracted immediately

by others.

 

Now this division, generally speaking, fully agrees with the teachings

of science.  I need only remind you of what I have said before with

regard to the formed tissues and structures of the body and its

formative agent the protoplasm.  Formed structure is considered as

material which has already passed out of the realms of life;  what lives

in it is the protoplasm.  So far the esoteric conception fully agrees

with the result of the latest investigations of modern science.

 

But when we are told by the Esoteric Doctrine that the vital principle

is indestructible, we feel we move on occult, incomprehensible ground,

for we know that protoplasm is, after all, as destructible as the body

itself.  It lives as long as life lasts, and, it may be said, it is the

only material in the body that does live as long as life lasts.  But it

dies with the cessation of life.  It is true it is capable of a sort of

resuscitation.  For that very dead protoplasm, be it animal or

vegetable, serves again as our food, and as the food of all the animal

world, and thus helps to repair our constantly wasting economy.  But for

all that it could hardly be said to be indestructible;  it is

assimilable--that is to say, capable of re-entering the domain of life,

through its being taken up by a living body.  But such an eventual

chance does by no means confer upon it the attribute of

indestructibility;  for we need only leave the dead animal or plant

containing the protoplasm alone, and it will rot and decay--organs,

tissues, and protoplasm altogether.

 

To our further perplexity the Esoteric Doctrine tells us that the vital

principle is not only indestructible, but it is a form of force, which,

when disconnected with one set of atoms, becomes attracted immediately

by others.  The vital principle to the Esoteric Doctrine would then

appear to be a sort of abstract force, not a force inherent in the

living protoplasm--this is the scientific conception--but a force per

se, independent altogether of the material with which it is connected.

 

Now I must confess this is a doctrine which puzzles one greatly,

although one may have no difficulty in accepting the spirit of man as an

entity, for the phenomena of ratiocination are altogether so widely

different from all physical phenomena that they can hardly be explained

by any of the physical forces known to us.  The materialist, who tells

us that consciousness, sensation, thought, and the spontaneous power of

the will, so peculiar to man and to the higher animals, are altogether

so many outcomes of certain conditions of matter and nothing else, makes

at best merely a subjective statement.  He cannot help acknowledging

that spontaneity is not a quality of matter.  He is then driven to the

contention that what we believe to be spontaneous in us, is, after all,

an unconscious result of external impulses only.  His contention rests

then on the basis of his own inner experience, or what he believes to be

such. This contention of his is, however, disputed by many, who no less

appeal to their own inner experience, or what they believe to be their

experience.  It is then a question of inner experience of the one party

versus inner experience of the other.  And such being the case, the

scientific materialist is driven to admit that his theory, however

correct it may be, rests, after all, on subjective experience, and can,

as such, not claim the rank of positive knowledge.  There is then no

difficulty in accepting the entity of the spirit in man, the

materialistic assertion to the contrary notwithstanding.  But the vital

force is exclusively concerned with the construction of matter.  Here we

have a right to expect that physical and chemical forces should hold the

whole ground of an explanation, if an explanation is possible at all.

Now, physical and chemical forces are no entities;  they are invariably

connected with matter.  In fact, they are so intimately connected with

matter that they can never be dissevered from it altogether.  The energy

of matter may be latent or patent, and, when patent, it may manifest

itself in one form or the other, according to the condition of its

surroundings;  it may manifest itself in the shape of light, heat,

electricity, magnetism, or vitality;  but in one form or the other

energy constantly inheres in matter.  The correlation of forces is now a

well-established, scientific fact, and it is more than plausible that

what is called the vital principle, or the vital force, forms a link in

the chain of the other known physical forces, and is, therefore,

transmutable into any of them;  granted even that there is such a thing

as a distinct vital force.  The tendency of modern Biology is then to

discard the notion of a vital entity altogether.  If vital force is to

be indestructible, then so are also indestructible heat, light,

electricity, &c.;  they are indestructible in this sense, that whenever

their respective manifestation is suspended or arrested, they make their

appearance in some other form of force;  and in this very same sense

vital force may be looked upon as indestructible:  whenever vital

manifestation is arrested, what had been acting as vital force is

transformed into chemical, electrical forces, &c., taking its place.

 

But the Esoteric Doctrine appears to teach something quite different

from what I have just explained, and what is, as far as I understand, a

fair representation of the scientific conception of the subject.  The

Esoteric Doctrine tells us that the vital principle is indestructible,

and, when disconnected with one set of atoms, becomes attracted by

others.  He then evidently holds that, what constitutes the vital

principle is a principle or form of force per se, a form of force which

can leave one set of atoms and go over as such to another set, without

leaving any substitute force behind.  This, it must be said, is simply

irreconcileable with the scientific view on the subject as hitherto

understood.

 

By the and of Professor Yaeger's theory this difficulty can be

explained, I am happy to say, in a most satisfactory way.

 

The seat of the vital principle, according to Professor Yaeger's theory,

is not the protoplasm, but the odorant matter imbedded in it.  And such

being the case, the vital principle, as far as it can be reached by the

breaking up of its animated protoplasm, is really indestructible.  You

destroy the protoplasm by burning it, by treating it with sulphuric

acid, or any other decomposing agent--the odoriferous substances, far

from being destroyed, become only so much the more manifest;  they

escape the moment protoplasmic destruction or decomposition begins,

carrying along with them the vital principle, or what has been acting as

such in the protoplasm.  And as they are volatile, they must soon meet

with other protoplasms congenial to their nature, and set up there the

same kind of vital activity as they have done in their former habitat.

They are, as the Esoteric Doctrine rightly teaches, indestructible, and

when disconnected with one set of atoms, they immediately become

attracted by others.

 

--L. Salzer, M.D.

 

 

 

 

 

Odorigen and Jiva (II.)

 

 

There is a well-known Sanskrit treatise, where most of the deductions of

Dr. Yaeger are anticipated and practically applied to sexual selection

in the human species.  The subject of aura seminalis finds a pretty full

treatment there.  The connection between what Dr. Yaeger calls

"odorigen" and jiva or prana, as it is differently called in different

systems of Indian philosophy, has been well traced.  But his remarks on

this subject, able as they no doubt are, call for a few observations

from the point of view of occult philosophy.  Jiva has been described by

a trustworthy authority as a "form of force indestructible, and, when

disconnected with one set of atoms, is immediately attracted by another

set."  Dr. Salzer concludes from this that occult philosophy looks upon

it as an abstract force or force per se. But surely this is bending too

much to the Procrustean phraseology of modern science, and if not

properly guarded will lead to some misapprehension.  Matter in occult

philosophy means existence in the widest sense of that word.  However

much the various forms of existence, such as physical, vital, mental,

spiritual, &c., differ from each other, they are mutually related as

being parts of the ONE UNIVERSAL EXISTENCE, the Parabrahma of the

Vedantist.  Force is the inherent power or capacity of Parabrahma, or

the "matter" of occultism, to assume different forms.  This power or

capacity is not a separate entity, but is the thing itself in which it

inheres, just as the three-angled character of a triangle is nothing

separate from the triangle itself.  From this it will be abundantly

clear that, accepting the nomenclature of occult science, one cannot

speak of an abstract force without being guilty of a palpable absurdity.

What is meant by Jiva being a "form of force," &c., is that it is matter

in a state in which it exhibits certain phenomena, not produced by it in

its sensuous state;  or, in other words, it is a property of matter in a

particular state, corresponding with properties called, under ordinary

circumstances, heat, electricity, &c., by modern science, but at the

same time without any correlation to them.  It might here be objected

that if Jiva was not a force per se, in the sense which modern science

would attach to the phrase, then how can it survive unchanged the grand

change called death, which the protoplasms it inheres in undergo? and

even granting that Jiva is matter in a particular state, in what part of

the body shall we locate it, in the teeth of the fact that the most

careful examination has not been successful in detecting it?  Jiva, as

has already been stated, is subtle supersensuous matter, permeating the

entire physical structure of the living being, and when it is separated

from such structure life is said to become extinct.  It is not

reasonable therefore to expect it to be subject to detection by the

surgeon's knife. A particular set of conditions is necessary for its

connection with an animal structure, and when those conditions are

disturbed, it is attracted by other bodies, presenting suitable

conditions.  Dr. Yaegar's "odorigen" is not Jiva itself, but is one of

the links which connects it with the physical body;  it seems to be

matter standing between Sthula Sarira (gross body) and Jiva.

 

--Dharanidar Kauthumi

 

 

 

 

Introversion of Mental Vision

 

 

Some interesting experiments have recently been tried by Mr. F.W.H.

Myers and his colleagues of the Psychic Research Society of London,

which, if properly examined, are capable of yielding highly important

results.  With the details of these we are not at present concerned:  it

will suffice for our purpose to state, for the benefit of readers

unacquainted with the experiments, that in a very large majority of

cases, too numerous to be the result of mere chance, it was found that

the thought-reading sensitive obtained but an inverted mental picture of

the object given him to read.  A piece of paper, containing the

representation of an arrow, was held before a carefully blindfolded

thought-reader, who was requested to mentally see the arrow as it was

turned round.  In these circumstances it was found that when the

arrow-head pointed to the right, it was read off as pointing to the

left, and so on.  This led some to imagine that there was a mirage in

the inner as well as on the outer plane of optical sensation.  But the

real explanation of the phenomenon lies deeper.

 

It is well known that an object as seen by us and its image on the

retina of the eye, are not exactly the same in position, but quite the

reverse.  How the image of an object on the retina is inverted in

sensation, is a mystery which physical science is admittedly incapable

of solving.  Western metaphysics, too, with regard to this point, hardly

fares any better;  there are as many theories as there are

metaphysicians.  The only philosopher who has obtained a glimpse of the

truth is the idealist Berkeley, who says that a child does really see a

thing inverted from our standpoint;  to touch its head it stretches out

its hands in the same direction of its body as we do of ours to reach

our feet. Repeated failures give experience and lead to the correction

of the notions born of one sense by those derived through another; the

sensations of distance and solidity are produced in the same way.

 

The application of this knowledge to the above mentioned experiments of

the Psychic Research Society will lead to very suggestive results.  If

the trained adept is a person who has developed all his interior

faculties, and is on the psychic plane in the full possession of his

senses, the individual, who accidentally, that is, without occult

training, gains the inner sight, is in the position of a helpless

child--a sport of the freaks of one isolated inner sense.  Such was the

case with the sensitives with whom Mr. Myers and his colleagues

experimented. There are instances, however, when the correction of one

sense by another takes place involuntarily and accurate results are

brought out.  When the sensitive reads the thoughts in a man's mind,

this correction is not required, for the will of the thinker shoots the

thoughts, as it were, straight into the mind of the sensitive.  The

introversion under notice will, moreover, be found to take place only in

the instance of such images which cannot be corrected by the already

acquired sense-experience of the sensitive.  A difficulty may here

suggest itself with regard to the names of persons or the words thought

of for the sensitive's reading.  But allowance must in such cases be

made for the operation of the thinker's will, which forces the thought

into the sensitive's mind, and thereby obviates introversion.  It is

abundantly clear from this that the best way of studying these phenomena

is when only one set of inner faculties, that of the sensitive, is in

play.  This takes place always when the object the sensitive has to

abnormally perceive is independent of the will of any other person, as

in the case of its being represented on paper.

 

Applying the same law to dreams, we can find the rationale of the

popular superstition that facts are generally inverted in dreams. To

dream of something good is generally taken to be the precursor of

something evil.  In the exceptional cases in which dreams have been

found to be prophetic, the dreamer was either affected by another's will

or under the operation of some disturbing forces, which cannot be

calculated except for each particular case.

 

In this connection another very important psychic phenomenon may be

noticed.  Instances are too numerous and too well authenticated to be

amenable to dispute, in which an occurrence at a distance--for instance,

the death of a person--has pictured itself to the mental vision of one

interested in the occurrence. In such cases the double of the dying man

appears even at a great distance, and becomes visible usually to his

friend only, but instances are not rare when the double is seen by a

number of persons.  The former case comes within the class of cases

under consideration, as the concentrated thought of the dying man is

clairvoyantly seen by the friend, and the incidents correctly reproduced

by the operation of the dying man's will-energy, while the latter is the

appearance of the genuine mayavirupa, and therefore not governed by the

law under discussion.

 

--Mohini M. Chatterji

 

 

 

 

"Precipitation"

 

 

Or all phenomena produced by occult agency in connection with our

Society, none have been witnessed by a more extended circle of

spectators, or more widely known and commented on through recent

Theosophical publications, than the mysterious production of letters.

The phenomenon itself has been so well described in the "Occult World"

and elsewhere, that it would be useless to repeat the description here.

Our present purpose is more connected with the process than the

phenomenon of the mysterious formation of letters.  Mr. Sinnett sought

for an explanation of the process, and elicited the following reply from

the revered Mahatma, who corresponds with him:--"....Bear in mind these

letters are not written, but impressed, or precipitated, and then all

mistakes corrected .... I have to think it over, to photograph every

word and sentence carefully in my brain, before it can be repeated by

precipitation.  As the fixing on chemically-prepared surfaces of the

images formed by the camera requires a previous arrangement within the

focus of the object to be represented, for, otherwise--as often found

in bad photographs--the legs of the sitter might appear out of all

proportion with the head, and so on--so we here to first arrange our

sentences, and impress every letter to appear on paper in our minds,

before it becomes fit to be read. For the present, it is all I can tell

you."

 

Since the above was written, the Masters have been pleased to permit the

veil to be drawn aside a little more, and the modus operandi can thus be

explained now more fully to the outsider.

 

Those having even a superficial knowledge of the science of mesmerism

know how the thoughts of the mesmeriser, though silently formulated in

his mind, are instantly transferred to that of the subject.  It is not

necessary for the operator, if he is sufficiently powerful, to be

present near the subject to produce the above result.  Some celebrated

practitioners in this science are known to have been able to put their

subjects to sleep even from a distance of several days' journey.  This

known fact will serve us as a guide in comprehending the comparatively

unknown subject now under discussion.  The work of writing the letters

in question is carried on by a sort of psychic telegraphy;  the

Mahatmas very rarely write their letters in the ordinary way.  An

electro-magnetic connection, so to say, exists on the psychic plane

between a Mahatma and his chelas, one of whom acts as his amanuensis.

When the Master wants a letter to be written in this way, he very often

draws the attention of the chela, whom he selects for the task, by

causing an astral bell (heard by so many of our Fellows and others) to

be rung near him, just as the despatching telegraph office signals to

the receiving office before wiring the message.  The thoughts arising in

the mind of the Mahatma are then clothed in words, pronounced mentally,

and forced along currents in the astral light impinge on the brain of

the pupil. Thence they are borne by the nerve-currents to the palms of

his hands and the tips of his fingers, which rest on a piece of

magnetically-prepared paper.  As the thought waves are thus impressed on

the tissue, materials are drawn to it from the ocean of akas (permeating

every atom of the sensuous universe) by an occult process, out of place

here to describe, and permanent marks are left.

 

From this it is abundantly clear that the success of such writing, as

above described, depends chiefly upon two conditions:--(1) The force

and clearness with which the thoughts are propelled;  and (2) the

freedom of the receiving brain from disturbance of every description.

The case with the ordinary electric telegraph is exactly the same.  If,

for some reason or other, the battery supplying the electric power falls

below the requisite strength on any telegraph line, or there is some

derangement in the receiving apparatus, the message transmitted becomes

either mutilated or otherwise imperfectly legible. Inaccuracies, in

fact, do very often arise, as may be gathered from what the Mahatma says

in the above extract.  "Bear in mind," says he, "that these letters are

not written, but impressed, or precipitated, and then all mistakes

corrected."  To turn to the sources of error in the precipitation.

Remembering the circumstances under which blunders arise in telegrams,

we see that if a Mahatma somehow becomes exhausted, or allows his

thoughts to wander during the process, or fails to command the requisite

intensity in the astral currents along which his thoughts are projected,

or the distracted attention of the pupil produces disturbances in his

brain and nerve-centres, the success of the process is very much

interfered with.

 

It is to be regretted that illustrations of the above general principles

are not permitted to be published.  Enough, however, has been disclosed

to give the public a clue to many apparent mysteries in regard to

precipitated letters, and to draw all earnest and sincere inquirers

strongly to the path of spiritual progress, which alone can lead to the

comprehension of occult phenomena.

 

--Anon.

 

 

 

 

"How Shall We Sleep?"

 

 

It appears that the opinion of Mr. Seeta Nath Ghose and of Baron Von

Reichenbach are in direct conflict on the subject of this paper, the

latter recommending the head of the sleeper to be northward, the former

entirely condemning that position.

 

It is my humble opinion that both writers are right, each from his own

standpoint, as I shall try to show.  What is the reason that our

position in sleep should be of any consequence?  Because our body must

be in a position at harmony with the main magnetic currents of the

earth;  but as these currents are not the same in all parts of the world

the positions of the sleeper must, therefore, vary.

 

There are three main magnetic currents on our earth--viz., in the

northern hemisphere, from north pole towards the equator;  in the

southern hemisphere, from south pole towards the equator;  these two

currents meeting in the torrid zone continue their combined course from

east to west.  So the position of the sleeper must vary according as he

finds himself to the north or south of the torrid zone or within it.

 

In the north frigid or temperate zone, he has to lie with his head

northward;  in the southern, southward;  in the torrid zone, eastward--

in order that the magnetic current may pass through him from head to

foot without disturbance, as this is the natural position for

magnetization.

 

The following diagram may give a clearer view of the case, and thus help

us to answer the second part of the question, whether and when we ought

to lie on the right or the left side, on the stomach or on the back:--

 

[[Diagram here]]

 

The able writer of  "How Shall we Sleep?" shows, in his cross diagram,

that he thinks the head to be entirely positive and both feet negative.

I think that this is not the case, but that the right side of the head

and the left foot are positive, and the left side of the head and the

right foot negative, and similarly the right hand is negative and the

left hand is positive.

 

As the north pole is positive and the left side of the head negative,

the natural position in sleep for those living within the northern zones

would be on the right side, head northward; and it is obvious that in

the southern zones the position must be exactly the reverse.  As to

those who live under the tropics, lying on the stomach seems to me to be

the most natural position, since the left, or negative side of the head,

is turned to the north or positive current, and vice versa.

 

For many years I and my family have been sleeping with our heads either

to the north or the west (the right position in our hemisphere, in my

opinion), and we had no occasion to regret it; for from that time

forward the physician has become a rare visitor in our house.

 

Mr. Seeta Nath Ghose says, in his interesting paper on "Medical

Magnetism," that Mandulies (metallic cells) are worn to great advantage

in India on diseased parts of the body.  The curative properties of

these cells I have seen verified in authentic instances.  When, years

ago (I believe about 1852), cholera was devastating some parts of

Europe, it was remarked at Munich (Bavaria) that among the thousands of

its victims there was not a single coppersmith.  Hence, it was

recommended by the medical authorities of that town to wear disks of

thin copperplate (of about 2 1/2 inch diameter) on a string, on the pit

of the stomach, and they proved to be a powerful preventive of cholera.

Again, in 1867, cholera visited Odessa.

 

I and my whole family wore these copper disks;  and while all around

there were numerous cases of cholera and dysentery, not one of us was

attacked.  I propose that serious experiments should be made in this

direction, and specially in those countries which are periodically

devastated by that disease:  as India, for instance.  It is my

conviction that one disk of copper on the stomach, and another of zinc

on the spine, opposite the former, will be of still better service, the

more so if the disks are joined by a thin copper chain.

 

--Gustave Zorn

 

 

In the first place it is necessary to say that the rules laid down by

Garga, Markandeya and others on the above subject, refer to the

inhabitants of the plains only, and not to dwellers on mountains.  The

rule is that on retiring a man should first lie on his right side for

the period of sixteen breathings, then turn on his left for double that

time, and after that he can sleep in any position.  Further, that a man

must not sleep on the ground, on silken or woollen cloth, under a

solitary tree, where cross-roads meet, on mountains, or on the sky

(whatever that may mean). Nor is he to sleep with damp clothes, wet

feet, or in a naked state;  and, unless an initiate, should not sleep on

Kusha grass or its varieties.  There are many more such rules.  I may

here notice that in Sanskrit the right hand or side and south are

signified by the same term.  So also the front and north have one and

the same name.  The sun is the great and chief source of life and

magnetism in the solar system.

 

Hence to the world the east is positive as the source of light and

magnetism.  For the same reason, to the northern hemisphere the south

(the equator and not the north) is positive.  Under the laws of dynamics

the resultant of these two forces will be a current in the directed from

S.E. to N.W.  This, I think, is one of the real causes of the prevailing

south-east wind.  At any rate, I do not think the north pole to be

positive, as there would be no snow there in such a case.  The aurora

cannot take place at the source of the currents, but at their close.

Hence the source must be towards the equator or south.  The course of

life, civilization, light, and almost everything seems to be from E. to

W. or S.E. to N.W.  The penalty for sleeping with the head to the west

is said to be anxiety of mind, while sleeping with the head to the north

is considered fatal.  I beg to invite the attention of the Hindus to a

similar penalty of death incurred by any but an initiate (Brahman)

pronouncing the sacred Pranava (Om).  This does not prove that Pranava

is really a mischievous bad word, but that, with incompetent men, it is

fraught with danger.  So also, in the case of ordinary men of the

plains, there may be unknown dangers which it would not be prudent for

them to risk so long as they do not know how to meet them, or so long as

they are not under the guidance of men who can protect them.  In short,

ordinary men should move on in their beaten course, and these rules are

for them only.

 

As an instance of the infringement of the rule the following anecdote is

given:--

 

After Ganesha (Siva's son) was born, all the Devas (gods) came to

congratulate the family and bless the child.  Sani or Saturn, was the

last to come, and even then he came after he had been several times

inquired after.  When he went to see the infant, it appeared headless!

This at once created a sensation, and all the Devas were at their wits'

end.  At last Saturn himself approached Mahadeva with folded hands and

reminded him that it was due to his presence, and the child having been

kept in a bed with its head to the north.  For such was the law.  Then

the Devas consulted together and sent out messengers to find out who

else was sleeping with the head to the north.  At last they discovered

an elephant in that position.  Its head was immediately cut off and

placed on the shoulders of Ganesha.  It need not be said that Ganesha

became afterwards so learned and wise that if he had not had an

elephant's head, a human head would never have been sufficient to hold

all he knew.  This advantage he owed to the circumstance of his sleeping

with head to the north, and the blessing of the Devas.  To the elephant,

the same position but minus the blessing of the Devas proved absolute

death.

 

--Nobin K. Bannerji

 

 

 

Reading Mr. Seeta Nath Ghose's paper on "Medical Magnetism" and having

studied long ago Baron von Reichenbach's "Researches in Magnetism," I am

sorely puzzled, inasmuch as these two authorities appear to clash with

each other most completely--the one asserting "head to north never,

under no circumstances," the other "head to north ever and under all

circumstances."  I have pursued the advice of the latter, not knowing of

the former for many years, but have not found the effect on my health

which I had hoped for, and what is of more importance, I have not found

a law of certain application to humanity and bringing health to all.  It

seems to me on carefully reading this article that a most important

point has been omitted or passed over--i.e., the position of the

sleeper, whether on his face or on his back? This is most important, for

a correct answer may go far to reconcile the two theories, which, be it

remembered, claim both to be supported by experiment and by observation.

I cannot conceive that a one-sided position is a natural one for man,

and thus leave two alternatives.  Is the proper position in sleep lying

on the back or on the stomach?  Not one word has been said as to the

position in which experiments were tried on either side.

 

Now the one thing which seems clear in all this is, that positive should

be toward negative and negative toward positive.  Let us then draw a

diagram and these positions will follow with these results--taking the

north as positive and south as negative, east as negative and west as

positive.

 

Position I.--Lying on the Back.

 

A. Head to East ............ Accord in all

B. Head to North ..........  Discord--Head and feet

                             Accord--Hands.

C. Head to South ........... Accord--Head and feet.

                             Discord--Hands.

D. Head to West ............ Discord in all.

 

---529

 

 

[[Diagram here]]

 

 

Position II.--Lying on Stomach

 

A'. Head to East ........ Accord--in Head and feet

                          Discord--in Hands

B'. Head to North ....... Discord in all

C'. Head to South ....... Accord in all

D'. Head to West ........ Discord--Head and feet

                          Accord--Hands

 

Now, from this will come some light, I think on the apparently

contradictory theories, if we could ascertain:  (1) Which position did

the renowned Garga and Markandeya contemplate as the proper position for

men to sleep in?  (2) In which position did those on whom Baron von

Reichenbach experimented lie?

 

This is a most important question for all who value the gift of health,

as well as for those who would be wise.  In my sojourn in southern

countries I have noticed that the natives of the lower classes at least

always sleep on their stomachs, with their back turned to the sun, and

all animals do the same, while sleeping on the back is most dangerous,

at least in the sun.  Is not this a guide or hint as to the true

position?

 

Transmigration of the Life-Atoms

 

It is said that "for three thousand years at least the 'mummy,' not

withstanding all the chemical preparations, goes on throwing off to the

last invisible atoms, which, from the hour of death, reentering the

various vortices of being, go indeed through every variety of organized

life-forms.  But it is not the soul, the fifth, least of all the sixth

principle, but the life-atoms of the Jiva, the second principle.  At the

end of the 3,000 years, sometimes more, and sometimes less, after

endless transmigrations, all these atoms are once more drawn together,

and are made to form the new outer clothing or the body of the same

monad (the real soul) which they had already clothed two or three

thousand years before.  Even in the worst case, that of the annihilation

of the conscious personal principle, the monad or individual soul is

ever the same, as are also the atoms of the lower principles, which,

regenerated and renewed in this ever-flowing river of being, are

magnetically drawn together owing to their affinity, and are once more

reincarnated together."

 

This little passage is a new instalment of occult teaching given to the

public, and opens up a vast field for thought.  It suggests, in the

first instance, that the exoteric doctrine of the transmigration of the

soul through lower forms of existence--so generally believed in by the

Hindus, though incorrect as regards the soul (fifth principle)--has some

basis of truth when referred to the lower principles.

 

It is stated further that the mummy goes on throwing off invisible

atoms, which go through every variety of organized life-forms, and

further on it is stated that it is the life-atoms of the Jiva, the

second principle, that go through these transmigrations.

 

According to the esoteric teaching, the Jiva "is a form of force

indestructible, and, when disconnected with one set of atoms, becoming

attracted immediately by others."

 

What, then, is meant by the life-atoms, and their going through endless

transmigrations?

 

The invisible atoms of the mummy would mean the imperceptibly decaying

atoms of the physical body, and the life-atoms of the Jiva would be

quite distinct from the atoms of the mummy.  Is it meant to imply that

both the invisible atoms of the physical body, as well as the atoms of

the Jiva, after going through various life-forms, return again to

re-form the physical body, and the Jiva of the entity that has reached

the end of its Devachanic state and is ready to be reincarnated again?

 

It is taught, again, that even in the worst case (the annihilation of

the Personal Ego) the atoms of the lower principles are the same as in

the previous birth.  Here, does the term "lower principles" include the

Kama rupa also, or only the lower triad of body, Jiva, and Lingasarira?

It seems the Kama rupa in that particular case cannot be included, for

in the instance of the annihilation of the personal soul, the Kama rupa

would be in the eighth sphere.

 

Another question also suggests itself.  The fourth principle (Kama rupa)

and the lower portion of the fifth, which cannot be assimilated by the

sixth, wander about as shells, and in time disperse into the elements of

which they are made.  Do the atoms of these principles also reunite,

after going through various transmigrations, to constitute over again

the fourth and the lower fifth of the next incarnation?

 

--N.D.K.

 

Note

 

We would, to begin with, draw attention to the closing sentence of the

passage quoted above:  "Such was the true occult theory of the

Egyptians," the word "true" being used there in the sense of its being

the doctrine they really believed in, as distinct from both the tenets

fathered upon them by some Orientalists, and that which the modern

occultists may be now teaching.  It does not stand to reason that,

outside those occult truths that were known to, and revealed by, the

great Hierophants during the final initiation, we should accept all that

either the Egyptians or any other people may have regarded as true.  The

Priests of Isis were the only true initiates, and their occult teachings

were still more veiled than those of the Chaldeans.  There was the true

doctrine of the Hierophants of the inner Temple;  then the half-veiled

Hieratic tenets of the Priest of the outer Temple;  and, finally, the

vulgar popular religion of the great body of the ignorant, who were

allowed to reverence animals as divine.  As shown correctly by Sir

Gardner Wilkinson, the initiated priests taught that "dissolution is

only the cause of reproduction .... nothing perishes which has once

existed, but things which appear to be destroyed only change their

natures and pass into another form."  To the present case, however, the

Egyptian doctrine of atoms coincides with our own occult teachings.  In

the above remarks the words, "The life-atoms of the Jiva," are taken in

a strictly literal sense.  Without any doubt Jiva or Prana is quite

distinct from the atoms it animates.  The latter belong to the lowest or

grossest state of matter--the objectively conditioned; the former, to a

higher state--that state which the uninitiated, ignorant of its nature,

would call the "objectively finite," but which, to avoid any future

misunderstanding, we may, perhaps, be permitted to call the subjectively

eternal, though, at the same time and in one sense, the subsistent

existence, however paradoxical and unscientific the term may appear.*

Life, the occultist says, is the eternal uncreated energy, and it alone

represents in the infinite universe, that which the physicists have

agreed to name the principle, or the law of continuity, though they

apply it only to the endless development of the conditioned.

 

But since modern science admits, through her most learned professors,

that "energy has as much claim to be regarded as an objective reality as

matter itself"** and as life, according to the occult doctrine, is the

one energy acting, Proteus-like, under the most varied forms, the

occultists have a certain right to use such phraseology.  Life is ever

present in the atom or matter, whether organic or inorganic--a

difference that the occultists do not accept.  Their doctrine is that

life is as much present in the inorganic as in the organic matter:  when

life-energy is active in the atom, that atom is organic;  when dormant

or latent, then the atom is inorganic.

 

--------

* Though there is a distinct term for it in the language of the adepts,

how can one translate it into a European language?  What name can be

given to that which is objective yet immaterial in its finite

manifestations, subjective yet substantive (though not in our sense of

substance) in its eternal existence?  Having explained it the best we

can, we leave the task of finding a more appropriate term for it to our

learned English occultists.

 

** "Unseen Universe."

----------

 

Therefore, the expression "life-atom," though apt in one sense to

mislead the reader, is not incorrect after all, since occultists do not

recognize that anything in Nature can be inorganic, and know of no "dead

atoms," whatever meaning science may give to the adjective.  The law of

biogenesis, as ordinarily understood, is the result of the ignorance of

the man of science of occult physics.  It is accepted because the man of

science is unable to find the necessary means to awaken into activity

the dormant life inherent in what he terms an inorganic atom;  hence the

fallacy that a living thing can only be produced from a living thing, as

though there ever was such a thing as dead matter in Nature!  At this

rate, and to be consistent, a mule ought to be also classed with

inorganic matter, since it is unable to reproduce itself and generate

life.  We dwell so much upon the above as it meets at once all future

opposition to the idea that a mummy, several thousand years old, can be

throwing off atoms.  Nevertheless, the sentence would perhaps have

gained in clearness if we had said, instead of the "life-atoms of jiva,"

the atoms "animated by dormant Jiva or life-energy."  Again, the

definition of Jiva quoted above, though quite correct on the whole,

might be more fully, if not more clearly, expressed.  The "jiva," or

life, principle, which animates man, beast, plant, and even a mineral,

certainly is "a form of force indestructible," since this force is the

one life, or anima mundi, the universal living soul, and that the

various modes in which objective things appear to us in Nature in their

atomic aggregations, such as minerals, plants, animals, &c., are all the

different forms or states in which this force manifests itself.  Were it

to become--we will not say absent, for this is impossible, since it is

omnipresent--but for one single instant inactive, say in a stone, the

particles of the latter would lose instantly their cohesive property,

and disintegrate as suddenly, though the force would still remain in

each of its particles, but in a dormant state.  Then the continuation of

the definition, which states that when this indestructible force is

"disconnected with one set of atoms, it becomes attracted immediately by

others," does not imply that it abandons entirely the first set, but

only that it transfers its vis viva, or living power--the energy of

motion--to another set. But because it manifests itself in the next set

as what is called kinetic energy, it does not follow that the first set

is deprived of it altogether;  for it is still in it, as potential

energy, or life latent.*  This is a cardinal and basic truth of

occultism, on the perfect knowledge of which depends the production of

every phenomenon.  Unless we admit this point, we should have to give up

all the other truths of occultism.  Thus what is "meant by the life-atom

going through endless transmigration" is simply this: we regard and

call, in our occult phraseology, those atoms that are moved by kinetic

energy as "life-atoms," while those that are for the time being passive,

containing but imperceptible potential energy, we call "sleeping atoms;"

regarding, at the same time, these two forms of energy as produced by

one and the same force or life.

 

-------

* We feel constrained to make use of terms that have become technical in

modern science--though they do not always fully express the idea to be

conveyed--for want of better words.  It is useless to hope that the

occult doctrine may be ever thoroughly understood, even the few tenets

that can be safely given to the world at large, unless a glossary of

such words is edited;  and, what is of a still greater importance, until

the full and correct meaning of the terms therein taught is thoroughly

mastered.

---------

 

Now to the Hindu doctrine of Metempsychosis.  It has a basis of truth;

and, in fact, it is an axiomatic truth, but only in reference to human

atoms and emanations, and that not only after a man's death, but during

the whole period of his life.  The esoteric meaning of the Laws of Manu

(sec. XII. 3, and XII. 54 and ), of the verses asserting that "every

act, either mental, verbal or corporeal, bears good or evil fruit

(Karma)," that "the various transmigrations of men (not souls) through

the highest, middle and lowest stages, are produced by their actions,"

and again that "a Brahman-killer enters the body of a dog, bear, ass,

camel, goat, sheep, bird, &c.," bears no reference to the human Ego, but

only to the atoms of his body, his lower triad and his fluidic

emanations. It is all very well for the Brahmans to distort, in their

own interest, the real meaning contained in these laws, but the words as

quoted never meant what they were made to yield later on.  The Brahmans

applied them selfishly to themselves, whereas by "Brahman," man's

seventh principle, his immortal monad and the essence of the personal

Ego were allegorically meant.  He who kills or extinguishes in himself

the light of Parabrahm--i.e., severs his personal Ego from the Atman,

and thus kills the future Devachanee, becomes a "Brahman killer."

Instead of facilitating, through a virtuous life and spiritual

aspirations, the union of the Buddhi and the Manas, he condemns, by his

own evil acts, every atom of his lower principles to become attracted

and drawn in virtue of the magnetic affinity, thus created by his

passions, into the bodies of lower animals. This is the real meaning of

the doctrine of Metempsychosis.  It is not that such amalgamation of

human particles with animal or even vegetable atoms can carry in it any

idea of personal punishment per se, for of course it does not.  But it

is a cause, the effects of which may manifest themselves throughout

succeeding re-births, unless the personality is annihilated. Otherwise,

from cause to effect, every effect becoming in its turn a cause, they

will run along the cycle of re-births, the once given impulse expending

itself only at the threshold of Pralaya.  But of this anon.

Notwithstanding their esoteric meaning, even the words of the grandest

and noblest of all the adepts, Gautama Buddha, are misunderstood,

distorted and ridiculed in the same way.  The Hina-yana, the lowest form

of transmigration of the Buddhist, is as little comprehended as the

Maha-yana, its highest form;  and, because Sakya Muni is shown to have

once remarked to his Bhikkhus, while pointing out to them a broom, that

"it had formerly been a novice who neglected to sweep out" the

Council-room, hence was re-born as a broom (!), therefore, the wisest of

all the world's sages stands accused of idiotic superstition.  Why not

try and find out, before condemning, the true meaning of the figurative

statement?  Why should we scoff before we understand?  Is or is not that

which is called magnetic effluvium a something, a stuff, or a substance,

invisible, and imponderable though it be?  If the learned authors of

"The Unseen Universe" object to light, heat and electricity being

regarded merely as imponderables, and show that each of these phenomena

has as much claim to be recognized as an objective reality as matter

itself, our right to regard the mesmeric or magnetic fluid which

emanates from man to man, or even from man to what is termed an

inanimate object, is far greater.  It is not enough to say that this

fluid is a species of molecular energy like heat, for instance, though

of much greater potency.  Heat is produced when ever kinetic energy is

transformed into molecular energy, we are told, and it may be thrown out

by any material composed of sleeping atoms, or inorganic matter as it is

called;  whereas the magnetic fluid projected by a living human body is

life itself.   Indeed it is "life-atoms" that a man in a blind passion

throws off unconsciously, though he does it quite as effectively as a

mesmeriser who transfers them from himself to any object consciously and

under the guidance of his will.  Let any man give way to any intense

feeling, such as anger, grief, &c., under or near a tree, or in direct

contact with a stone, and after many thousands of years any tolerable

psychometer will see the man, and perceive his feelings from one single

fragment of that tree or stone that he had touched.  Hold any object in

your hand, and it will become impregnated with your life-atoms, indrawn

and outdrawn, changed and transferred in us at every instant of our

lives.  Animal heat is but so many life atoms in molecular motion.  It

requires no adept knowledge, but simply the natural gift of a good

clairvoyant subject to see them passing to and fro, from man to objects

and vice versa like a bluish lambent flame.  Why, then, should not a

broom, made of a shrub, which grew most likely in the vicinity of the

building where the lazy novice lived, a shrub, perhaps, repeatedly

touched by him while in a state of anger provoked by his laziness and

distaste for his duty--why should not a quantity of his life-atoms have

passed into the materials of the future besom, and therein have been

recognized by Buddha, owing to his superhuman (not supernatural) powers?

The processes of Nature are acts of incessant borrowing and giving back.

The materialistic sceptic, however, will not take anything in any other

way than in a literal, dead-letter sense.

 

To conclude our too long answer, the "lower principles" mentioned before

are the first, second and the third.  They cannot include the Kama rupa,

for this "rupa" belongs to the middle, not the lower principles.  And,

to our correspondent's further query, "Do the atoms of these (the fourth

and the fifth) also re-form, after going through various

transmigrations, to constitute over again the fourth and the lower fifth

of the next incarnation?" we answer, "They do."  The reason why we have

tried to explain the doctrine of the "life-atoms" at such length, is

precisely in connection with this last question, and with the object of

throwing out one more fertile hint.  We do not feel at liberty at

present, however, to give any further details.

 

--H.P. Blavatsky

 

 

 

 

"OM," And Its Practical Significance

 

 

I shall begin with a definition of Om, as given by the late Professor

Theodore Goldstucker:--

 

"Om is a Sanskrit word which, on account of the mystical notions that

even at an early date of Hindu civilization were connected with it,

acquired much importance in the development of Hindu religion.  Its

original sense is that of emphatic or solemn affirmation or assent.

Thus, when in the White Yajur Veda the sacrificer invites the gods to

rejoice in his sacrifice, the goddess Savitri assents to his summons by

saying, 'Om' (i.e., be it so);  proceed!"

 

Or, when in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Prajapati, the father of gods,

men and demons, asks the gods whether they have understood his

instructions, he expresses his satisfaction with their affirmative reply

in these words, "Om, you have fully comprehended it;"  and in the same

Upanishad, Pravahana answers the question of Swetaketu, as to whether

his father has instructed him, by uttering the word "Om"--i.e.,

"forsooth (I am)."

 

A portion of the Rig Veda called the Aitareya Brahmana, where,

describing a religious ceremony at which verses from the Rig Veda, as

well as songs called Gathas, were recited by the priest called Hotri,

and responses given by another priest, the Adhwaryu, says:  Om is the

response of the Adhwaryu to the Rig Veda verses (recited by the Hotri),

and likewise tatha (i.e., thus) his response to the Gathas, for Om is

(the term of assent) used by the gods, whereas tatha is (the term of

assent) used by men (the Rig Veda verses being, to the orthodox Hindu,

of divine and the Gathas of human authorship).

 

In this, the original sense of the word, it is little doubtful that Om

is but an older and contracted form of the common Sanskrit word evam

("thus"), which, coming from the pronominal base "a," in some

derivations changed to "e," may have at one time occurred in the form

avam, when, by the elision of the vowel following a, for which there are

numerous analogies in Sanskrit, vum would become aum, and hence,

according to the ordinary phonetic laws of the language, Om.  This

etymology of the word, however, seems to have been lost even at an early

period of Sanskrit literature;  for another is met with in the ancient

grammarians, enabling us to account for the mysticism which many

religious and theological works of ancient and medieval India suppose to

inhere in it.  According to this latter etymology, Om would come from a

radical av;  by means of an affix man, when Om would be a curtailed form

of avman or oman, and as av implies the notion of "protect, preserve,

save," Om would be a term implying "protection or salvation," its

mystical properties and its sanctity being inferred from its occurrence

in the Vedic writings and in connection with sacrificial acts, such as

are alluded to before.

 

Hence Om became the auspicious word with which the spiritual teacher had

to begin and the pupil to end each lesson of his reading of the Veda.

 

"Let this syllable," the existing Prati-sakhya, or a grammar of the Rig

Veda, enjoins, "be the head of the reading of the Veda; for alike to the

teacher and the pupil it is the supreme Brahman, the gate of heaven."

And Manu ordains:  "A Brahman at the beginning and end (of a lesson on

the Veda) must always pronounce the syllable Om;  for unless Om precede,

his learning will slip away from him;  and unless it follows, nothing

will be long retained."

 

At the time when another class of writings (the Puranas) were added to

the inspired code of Hinduism, for a similar reason Om is their

introductory word.

 

That the mysterious power which, as the foregoing quotation from the

law-book of Manu shows, was attributed to this word must have been the

subject of early speculation, is obvious enough.  A reason assigned for

it is given by Manu himself.  "Brahma," he says, "extracted from the

three Vedas the letter a, the letter u, and the letter m (which combined

result in Om), together with the (mysterious) words Bhuh (earth), Bhuva

(sky), and Swah (heaven);" and in another verse:  "These three great

immutable words, preceded by the syllable Om, and (the sacred Rig Veda

verse called) Gayatri, consisting of three lines, must be considered as

the mouth (or entrance) of Brahman (the Veda)," or, as the commentators

observe, the means of attaining final emancipation; and "The syllable Om

is the supreme Brahman.  (Three) regulated breathings, accompanied with

the mental recitation of Om, the three mysterious words Bhuh, Bhuvah,

Swah and the Gayatri, are the highest devotion."

 

"All rites ordained in the Veda, such as burnt and other sacrifices,

pass away, but the syllable Om must be considered as imperishable;  for

it is (a symbol of) Brahman (the supreme spirit) himself, the Lord of

Creation."  In these speculations Manu bears out, and is borne out by,

several Upanishads.  In the Katha-Upanishad for instance, Yama, the god

of death, in replying to a question of Nachiketas, says:  "The word

which all the Vedas record, which all the modes of penance proclaim,

desirous of which religious students perform their duties, this word I

will briefly tell thee--it is Om.  This syllable means the (inferior)

Brahman and the supreme (Brahman).  Whoever knows this syllable obtains

whatever he wishes."  And in the Pras'na-Upanishad the saint Pippalada

says to Satyakama:  "The supreme and the inferior Brahman are both the

word Om;  hence the wise follow by this support the one or the other of

the two.  If he meditates upon its one letter (a) only, he is quickly

born on the earth;  is carried by the verses of the Rig Veda to the

world of man;  and, if he is devoted there to austerity, the duties of a

religious student and faith, he enjoys greatness.  But if he meditates

in his mind on its two letters (a and u), he is elevated by the verses

of the Yajur Veda to the intermediate region;  comes to the world of the

moon and, having enjoyed there power, returns again (to the world of

man).  If, however, he meditates on the supreme spirit by means of its

three letters (a, u, and m) he is produced in light in the sun;  as the

snake is liberated from its skin, so is he liberated from sin."

According to the Mandukya-Upanishad the nature of the soul is

summarized in the three letters a, u, and m in their isolated and

combined form--a being Vaiswanara, or that form of Brahman which

represents the soul in its waking condition;  a, Taijasa, or that form

of Brahman which represents it in its dreaming state;  and m, Piajna, or

that form of Brahman which represents it in its state of profound sleep

(or that state in which it is temporarily united with the supreme

spirit);  while a, u, m combined (i.e., Om), represent the fourth or

highest condition of Brahman, "which is unaccountable, in which all

manifestations have ceased, which is blissful and without duality.  Om

therefore, is soul, and by this soul, he who knows it, enters into (the

supreme) soul."  Passages like these may be considered as the key to the

more enigmatic expressions used;  for instance, by the author of the

Yoga philosophy where, in three short sentences, he says his (the

supreme lord's) name is Pranava (i.e., Om);  its muttering (should be

made) and reflection on its signification;  thence comes the knowledge

of the transcendental spirit and the absence of the obstacles (such as

sickness, languor, doubt, &c., which obstruct the mind of an ascetic).

But they indicate, at the same time, the further course which

superstition took in enlarging upon the mysticism of the doctrine of the

Upanishads.  For, as soon as every letter of which the word Om consists

was fancied to embody a separate idea, it is intelligible that other

sectarian explanations were grafted on them to serve special purposes.

Thus, while Sankara, the great theologian and commentator on the

Upanishads, is still contented with an etymological punning by means of

which he transforms a into an abbreviation of apti (pervading), since

speech is pervaded by Vaiswanara;  u into an abbreviation of utkartha

(superiority), since Taijasa is superior to Vaiswanara; and m into an

abbreviation of miti (destruction), Vaiswanara and Taijasa, at the

destruction and regeneration of the world, being, as it were, absorbed

into Prajna--the Puranas make of a, a name of Vishnu;  of u, a name of

his consort "Sri;"  and of m, a designation of their joint worshipper;

or they see in a, u, m, the Triad--Brahm, Vishnu, and Siva;  the first

being represented by a, the second by u, and the third by m--each sect,

of course, identifying the combination of these letters, or Om with

their supreme deity.  Thus, also, in the Bhagavadgita, which is devoted

to the worship of Vishnu in his incarnation as Krishna, though it is

essentially a poem of philosophical tendencies based on the doctrine of

the Yoga, Krishna in one passage says of himself that he is Om;  while

in another passage he qualifies the latter as the supreme spirit.  A

common designation of the word Om--for instance, in the last-named

passages of the Bhagavadgita is the word Pranava, which comes from a

so-called radical nu, "praise," with the prefix pra amongst other

meanings implying emphasis, and, therefore, literally means "eulogium,

emphatic praise." Although Om, in its original sense as a word of solemn

or emphatic assent, is, properly speaking, restricted to the Vedic

literature, it deserves notice that it is now-a-days often used by the

natives of India in the sense of "yes," without, of course, any allusion

to the mystic properties which are ascribed to it in the religious

works.  Monier Williams gives the following account of the mystic

syllable Om:  "When by means of repeating the syllable Om, which

originally seems to have meant 'that' or 'yes,' they had arrived at a

certain degree of mental tranquillity, the question arose what was meant

by this Om, and to this various answers were given according as the mind

was to be led up to higher and higher objects.  Thus, in one passage, we

are told at first that Om is the beginning of the Veda, or as we have to

deal with an Upanishad of the Shama Veda, the beginning of the Shama

Veda;  so that he who meditates on Om may be supposed to be meditating

on the whole of the Shama Veda.

 

"Om is the essence of the Shama Veda which, being almost entirely taken

from the Rig Veda, may itself be called the essence of the Rig Veda. The

Rig Veda stands for all speech, the Shama Veda for all breath or life;

so that Om may be conceived again as the symbol of all speech and all

life.  Om thus becomes the name not only of all our mental and physical

powers, but is especially that of the living principle of the pran or

spirit.  This is explained by the parable in the second chapter, while

in the third chapter that spirit within us is identified with the spirit

in the sun.

 

"He, therefore, who meditates on Om, meditates on the spirit in man as

identical with the spirit in Nature or in the sun, and thus the lesson

that is meant to be taught in the beginning of the Khandogya Upanishad

is really this that none of the Vedas, with their sacrifices and

ceremonies, could ever secure the salvation of the worshipers.  That is,

the sacred works performed, according to the rules of the Vedas, are of

no avail in the end, but meditation on Om, or that knowledge of what is

meant by Om, alone can procure true salvation or true immortality.

 

"Thus the pupil is led on step by step to what is the highest object of

the Upanishads--namely, the recognition of the self in man as identical

of the highest soul.

 

"The lessons which are to lead up to that highest conception of the

universe, both subjective and objective, are, no doubt, mixed up with

much that is superstitious and absurd.  Still the main object is never

lost sight of.  Thus, when we come to the eighth chapter, the

discussion, though it begins with Om ends with the question of the

origin of the world, and the final answer--namely, that Om means Akasa,

ether, and that ether is the origin of all things."

 

Dr. Lake considers electricity as the akas, or the fifth element of the

Hindus.

 

I shall now give my own opinion on the mystic syllable Om.

 

Breath consists of an inspiration termed puraka, an interval termed

kumbhaka, and an expiration called rechaka.  When the respiration is

carried on by the right nostril, it is called the pingala;  when it is

carried on by the two nostrils, it is named the susumna;  and when it is

carried on by the left nostril, it is called ida.

 

The right respiration is called the solar respiration, from its heating

nature;  while the left respiration is termed the lunar respiration,

from its cooling character.  The susumna respiration is called the

shambhu-nadi.  During the intermediate respiration the human mind should

be engaged in the contemplation of the supreme soul.

 

The breath takes its origin from the "indiscreet" or unreflecting form,

and the mind from the breath.  The organs of sense and action are under

the control of the mind.  The Yogis restrain their mind by the

suspension of breath.  Breath is the origin of all speech.  The word

soham is pronounced by a deep inspiration followed by expiration carried

on by the nostrils.... This word means, "God is in us."  There is

another word called hangsha. This is pronounced by a deep expiration

followed by inspiration. Its meaning is "I am in God."

 

The inspiration is sakti, or strength.  The expiration is siva, or

death.  The internal or Kumbhaka is a promoter of longevity. When the

expiration is not followed by inspiration death ensues. A forcible

expiration is always the sure and certain sign of approaching

dissolution or death.  Both these words soham and hanysha cause the

waste of the animal economy, as they permit the oxygen of the inspired

air to enter the lungs where the pulmonary changes of the blood occur.

 

According to Lavoissier, an adult Frenchman inhales daily 15,661 grains

of oxygen from the atmosphere, at the rate of 10.87 grains nearly per

minute.

 

The word Om is pronounced by the inspiration of air through the mouth

and the expiration of the same by the nostrils.

 

When a man inspires through the mouth and expires through the nostrils,

the oxygen of the inspired air does not enter the lungs where the

pulmonary changes of the blood take place.  The monosyllable Om thus

acts as a substitute for the suspension of the breath.

 

The waste of the body is proportionate to the quantity of oxygen taken

into the system by the respiration.  The waste of a man who breathes

quickly is greater than that of one who breathes slowly. While

tranquillity of mind produces slow breathing, and causes the retardation

of the bodily waste, the tranquil respiration has a tendency to produce

calmness of mind.  The Yogis attain to Nirvana by suspending or holding

the breath.  The Vedantists obtain moksha, or emancipation of the soul,

by holding the mind (mental abstraction).  Thus Om is the process of

separating the soul from the body.  It is the product of the gasping

breath which precedes the dissolution of our body.  The ancient Hindus

utilized the gasping breath of the dying man by discovering the syllable

Om.

 

The syllable Om protects man from premature decay and death, preserves

him from worldly temptations, and saves him from re-birth.  It causes

the union of the human soul to the supreme soul.  Om has the property of

shortening the length of respiration.

 

Siva is made to say in a work on "Sharodaya" (an excellent treatise on

respiration) that the normal length of the expiration is 9 inches.

During meals and speaking the length of the expiration becomes 13.5

inches.  In ordinary walking the expiration is lengthened to 18 inches.

Running lengthens the expiration to 25.5 inches.

 

In sexual intercourse the extent of respiration becomes 48.75 inches.

During sleep the respiration becomes 75 inches long. As sleep causes a

great waste of the body and invites disease, premature decay and death,

the Yogi tries to abstain from it. He lives upon the following

dietary:--rice, 6 ounces troy; milk, 12 ounces troy.  He consumes daily:

carbon, 156.2 grains; nitrogen, 63.8 grains.

 

Under this diet he is ever watchful, and spends his time in the

contemplation of Om.  From the small quantity of nitrogen contained in

his diet he is free from anger.  The Yogi next subdues his carnal desire

or sexual appetite.  He diminishes day by day his food until it reaches

the minimum quantity on which existence is maintained.  He passes his

life in prayer and meditation.  He seeks retirement.  He lives in his

little cell; his couch is the skin of tiger or stag;  he regards gold,

silver, and all precious stones as rubbish.  He abstains from flesh,

fish, and wine.  He never touches salt, and lives entirely on fruits and

roots.  I saw a female mendicant who lived upon a seer of potatoes and a

small quantity of tamarind pulp daily.  This woman reduced herself to a

skeleton.  She led a pure, chaste life, and spent her time in the mental

recitation of Om.  One seer of potatoes contains 3,600 grains of solid

residue, which is exactly 7 1/2 ounces troy.

 

The solid residue of one seer of potatoes consists of the following

ultimate ingredients:--

 

Carbon .............. 1587.6 grains

Hydrogen ............  208.8    "

Nitrogen .............  43.2    "

Oxygen .............. 1580.4    "

Salts .................180.0    "

                        --------

                      3600.0    "

 

I saw a Brahman (Brahmachari) who consumed daily one seer of milk, and

took no other food.

 

 

Analysis of One Seer of Cow's Milk by Boussingault.

 

Water ....................... 12,539.520 grains

Carbon ......................  1,005.408     "

Hydrogen ......................  164.736     "

Nitrogen .......................  74.880     "

Oxygen ......................... 525.456     "

Salts ........................... 90.000     "

                                  -----------

                              14,400.000     "

 

Now, one seer of cow's milk requires for combustion within the animal

economy 3278.88 grains of oxygen.  The Brahmachari inhaled 2.27 grains

of oxygen per minute.  This Brahmachari spent his life in the

contemplation of Om, and led a life of continence. The French adult, who

is a fair specimen of well-developed sensuality, inhaled from the

atmosphere 10.87 grains of oxygen every minute of his existence.

 

A retired, abstemious, and austere life is essentially necessary for the

pronunciation of Om, which promotes the love of rigid virtue and a

contempt of impermanent sensuality.  Siva says "He who is free from

lust, anger, covetousness and ignorance is qualified to obtain

salvation, or moksha," or the Nirvana of the Buddhists.  The solid

residue of one seer of cow's milk is 1860.48 grains.  "In 1784 a student

of physic at Edinburgh confined himself for a long space of time to a

pint of milk and half a pound of white bread."

 

The diet of this student contained 1487.5 grains of carbon and 80.1875

grains of nitrogen.  This food required 4,305 grains of oxygen for the

complete combustion of its elements.  He inspired 2.92 grains of oxygen

per minute.  In this instance the intense mental culture diminished the

quantity of oxygen inspired from the atmosphere.  The early Christian

hermits, with a view to extinguish carnal desire and overcome sleep,

lived upon a daily allowance of 12 ounces of bread and water.  They

daily consumed 4063.084 grains of oxygen.  They inhaled oxygen at the

rate of 2.8215 grains per minute.

 

According to M. Andral, the great French physiologist, a French boy 10

years old, before the sexual appetite is developed, exhales 1852.8

grains of carbon in the twenty-four hours.  He who wishes to curb his

lust should consume 1852.8 grains of carbon in his daily diet.

 

Now, 6,500 grains of household bread contain 1852 grains of carbon,

according to Dr. Edward Smith.  This quantity of bread is equal to 14

ounces avoirdupois and 375 grains, but the early Christian hermits who

lived upon 12 oz. of bread (avoirdupois) consumed daily 1496.25 grains

of carbon.  This quantity of carbon was less than that which the French

boy consumed daily by 356.55 grains.  The French boy consumed 1852.8

grains of carbon in his diet, but the Hindu female mendicant, who led a

life of continence, consumed in her daily ration of potatoes 1587.6

grains of carbon.  Hence it is evident that the French boy consumed

265.2 grains of carbon more than what was consumed by the female Hindu

Yogi.  There lived in Brindavana a Sannyasi, who died at the age of 109

years, and who subsisted for forty years upon the daily diet of four

chuttacks of penda and four chuttacks of milk.  His diet contained 1,980

grains of carbon and 90.72 grains of nitrogen.  Abstemiousness shortens

the length of respiration, diminishes the waste of the body, promotes

longevity, and engenders purity of heart.  Abstemiousness cures vertigo,

cephalalgia, tendency to apoplexy, dyspnoea, gout, old ulcers, impetigo,

scrofula, herpes, and various other maladies.

 

Cornaro, an Italian nobleman, who was given up by all his physicians,

regained health by living upon 12 ounces of bread and 15 ounces of

water, and lived to a great age.

 

He consumed less than an ounce of flesh-formers in his diet. According

to Edward Smith 5401.2 grains of bread contain 1 ounce of flesh-formers.

 

He who wishes to lead a life of chastity, honesty, meekness, and mercy,

should consume daily one ounce of flesh-formers in his diet.  As an

ounce of nitrogenous matter contains 70 grains of nitrogen, one should

take such food as yields only 70 grains of azote.

 

Murder, theft, robbery, cruelty, covetousness, lust, slander, anger,

voluptuousness, revenge, lying, prostitution, and envy are sins which

arise from a consumption of a large quantity of aliments containing a

higher percentage of azote.

 

He who intends to be free from every earthly thought, desire and passion

should abstain from fish, flesh, woman, and wine, and live upon the most

innocent food.

 

The following table shows approximately the quantities of various

aliments furnishing 70 grains of nitrogen:

 

Wheat dried in vacuo ............ 3181.81 grains

Oats ............................ 3181.81    "

Barley .......................... 3465.34    "

Indian corn ..................... 3500       "

Rye dried ........................4117.64    "

Rice dried .......................5036       "

Milk dried .......................1750       "

Peas dried .......................1666.6     "

White haricots dried ..... .......1627.67    "

Horse beans dried ................1272.72    "

Cabbage dried ....................1891.89    "

Carrots dried ....................2916.66    "

Jerusalem artichokes .............4375       "

Turnips dried ....................3181.81    "

Bread ............................5401.2     "

Locust beans .....................6110       "

Figs .............................7172.13    "

Cow's milk fresh .................1346.2     "

 

Abstemiousness begets suspension of breath.  From the suspension of

breath originates tranquillity of mind, which engenders supersensuous

knowledge.  From supersensuous knowledge originates ecstasy which is the

Samadhi of the ancient Hindu sages.

 

Instead of walking and running, which lengthen the respiration, the

devotees of Om should practice the two tranquil postures termed the

padmasana and siddhasana, described in my mystic tract called "The Yoga

Philosophy."  According to Siva the normal length of expiration is 9

inches.  He says that one can subdue his lust and desire by shortening

his expiration to 8.25 inches, whether by the inaudible pronunciation of

Om or by the suspension of breath (Pranayama);  that one can enjoy

ecstasy by diminishing the length of his expiration to 7.50 inches.

 

One acquires the power of writing poetry by reducing his expiration to

6.75 inches.

 

When one can reduce his expiration to 6 inches long he acquires the

power of foretelling future events.  When one reduces the length of his

expiration to 5.25 inches he is blessed with the divine eye.  He sees

what is occurring in the distant worlds.

 

When the inaudible pronunciation of Om reduces the length of the

expiration to 4.50 inches it enables its votary to travel to aerial

regions.  When the length of expiration becomes 3.75 inches, the votary

of Om travels in the twinkling of an eye through the whole world.

 

When by the inaudible muttering of Om a man reduces his expiration to 3

inches, he acquires ashta Siddhis or consummations (or superhuman

powers).  When the expiration is reduced to 2.25 inches, the votary of

Om can acquire the nine precious jewels of the world (Nava nidhi). Such

a man can attract the wealth of the world to him.*

 

--------

* Supposing he had any care or use for it--Ed. Theos.

--------

 

When the expiration becomes 1.50 inches long from the above practice, he

sees the celestial sphere where the Supreme Soul resides.  When the

inaudible pronunciation of Om reduces the length of expiration to .75

inch, the votary becomes deified and casts no shadow.

 

     "Om Amitaya! measure not with words

     The immeasurable;  nor sink the string of thought

     Into the Fathomless! Who asks doth err;

     Who answers errs. Say nought!"

 

     "Om mani padma hum. Om the jewel in the lotus."

 

By the muttering of the above formula the Great Buddha freed himself

from selfishness, false faith, doubt, hatred, lust, self-praise, error,

pride, and attained to Nirvana.

 

     "And how man hath no fate except past deeds,

     No Hell but what he makes, no Heaven too high

     For those to reach whose passions sleeps subdued."

 

According to Siva a man acquires Nirvana when his breathing becomes

internal and does not come out of the nostrils.  When the breathing

becomes internal--that is, when it is contained within the nostrils, the

Yogi is free from fainting, hunger, thirst, languor, disease and death.

He becomes a divine being, he feels not when he is brought into contact

with fire;  no air can dry him, no water can putrefy him, no poisonous

serpent can inflict a mortal wound.  His body exhales fragrant odours,

and can bear the abstinence from air, food, and drink.

 

When the breathing becomes internal, the Yogi is incapable of committing

any sin in deed, thought, and speech, and thereby inherits the Kingdom

of Heaven, which is open to sinless souls.

 

--N.C. Paul

 

 

-------------------

 

Glossary

 

 

     Ab-e-Hyat, Water of Life, supposed to give eternal youth.

     Abhava, negation or non-being of individual objects; the

substance, the abstract objectivity.

     Adam Kadmon, the bi-sexual Sephira of the Kabalists.

     Adept, one who, through the development of his spirit, has

attained to transcendental knowledge and powers.

     Adhibhautika, arising from external objects.

     Adhidaivika, arising from the gods, or accidents.

     Adhikamasansas, extra months.

     Adhishthanum, basis a principle in which some other

principle inheres.

     Adhyatmika, arising out of the inner-self.

     Advaiti, a follower of the school of Philosophy established

by Sankaracharya.

     Ahankara, personality;  egoism;  self identity;  the fifth

principle.

     Ahriman, the Evil Principle of the Universe;  so called by

the Zoroastrians.

     Ahum, the first three principles of septenary human

constitution;  the gross living body of man according to the

Avesta.

     A'kasa, the subtle supersensuous matter which pervades all

space.

     Amulam Mulam (lit. "the rootless root");  Prakriti;  the

material of the universe.

     Anahatachakram, the heart, the seat of life.

     A'nanda, bliss.

     A'nanda-maya-kosha, the blissful;  the fifth sheath of the

soul in the Vedantic system;  the sixth principle.

     Anastasis, the continued existence of the soul.

     Anima Mundi, the soul of the world.

     Annamaya Kosha, the gross body;  the first sheath of the

divine monad (Vedantic).

     Antahkarana, the internal instrument, the soul, formed by

the thinking principle and egoism.

     Anumiti, inference.

     Aparoksha, direct perception.

     Apavarya, emancipation from repeated births.

     Apporrheta, secret discourses in Egyptian and Grecian

mysteries.

     Arahats (lit."the worthy ones"), the initiated holy men of

the Buddhist and Jain faiths.

     Aranyakas, holy sages dwelling in forests.

     Ardhanariswara, (lit. "the bisexual Lord");  the unpolarized

state of cosmic energy;  the bi-sexual Sephira, Adam Kadmon.

     Arka, sun.

     Aryavarta, the ancient name of Northern India where the

Brahmanical invaders first settled.

     A'sana, the third stage of Hatha Yoga;  the posture for

meditation.

     Asat, the unreal, Prakriti.

     A'shab and Laughan, ceremonies for casting out evil spirits,

so called among the Kolarian tribes.

     Ashta Siddhis, the eight consummations of Hatha Yoga.

     Asoka (King), a celebrated conqueror, monarch of a large

portion of India, who is called "the Constantine of Buddhism,"

temp. circa 250 B.C.

     Astral Light, subtle form of existence forming the basis of

our material universe.

     Asuramaya, an Atlantean astronomer, well known in Sanskrit

writings.

     Asuras, a class of elementals considered maleficent;

demons.

     Aswini, the divine charioteers mystically they correspond to

Hermes, who is looked upon as his equal.  They represent the

internal organ by which knowledge is conveyed from the soul to

the body.

     Atharva Veda, one of the four most ancient and revered books

of the ancient Brahmans.

     Atlantis, the continent that was submerged in the Southern

and Pacific Oceans.

     Atmabodha (lit. "self-knowledge"), the title of a Vedantic

treatise by Sankaracharya.

     Atman, &c Atma.

     A'tma, the spirit;  the divine monad;  the seventh principle

of the septenary human constitution.

     A'ttavada, the sin of personality (Pali).

     Aum, the sacred syllable in Sanskrit representing the

Trinity

     Avalokitesvara, manifested wisdom, or the Divine Spirit in

man.

     Avasthas, states, conditions, positions.

     Avatar, the incarnation of an exalted being, so called among

the Hindus.

     Avesta, the sacred books of the Zoroastrians.

     Avyakta, the unrevealed cause.

 

     Baddha, bound or conditioned;  the state of an ordinary

human being who has not attained Nirvana.

     Bahihpragna, the present state of consciousness.

     Baodhas, consciousness;  the fifth principle of man.

     Barhaspatyamanam, a method of calculating time prevalent

during the later Hindu period in North-eastern India.

     Bhadrasena, a Buddhist king of Magadha.

     Bhagats (or called Sokha and Sivnath by the Hindus), one who

exorcises an evil spirit.

     Bhagavad Gita (lit, the "Lord's Song"), an episode of the

Maha-Bharata, the great epic poem of India.  It contains a

dialogue between Krishna and Arjuna on Spiritual Philosophy.

     Bhao, ceremony of divination among the Kolarian tribes of

Central India.

     Bhashya, commentary.

     Bhon, religion of the aborigines of Tibet.

     Bikshu, a religious mendicant and ascetic who suppresses all

desire and is constantly occupied in devotion;  a Buddhist monk.

     Boddhisatwas, Egos evolving towards Buddhahood.

     Brahma, the Hindu Deity which personifies the active cosmic

energy.

     Brahmachari, a Bushman ascetic.

     Brahmagnani, one possessed of complete illumination.

     Brahman, the highest caste in India;  Brahman, the absolute

of the Vedantins.

     Brahmana period, one of the four periods into which the

Vedic literature has been divided.

     Brihadranyaka Upanishad, one of the sacred books of the

Brahmins;  an Aranyaka is a treatise appended to the Vedas, and

considered the subject of special study by those who have retired

to the forest for purposes of religious meditation.

     Buddha, the founder of Buddhism;  he was a royal prince, by

name Siddhartha, son of Suddhodhana, king of the Sakyas, an Aryan

tribe.

     Buddhi, the spiritual Ego.

     Buru Bonga, spirit of the hills worshiped by the Kolarian

tribes of Central India.

 

     Canarese, one of the Dravidian tongues, spoken in Southern

India.

     Chandragupta, one of the kings of Magadha, an ancient

province of India.

     Chandramanam, the method of calculating time by the

movements of the moon.

     Charaka, the most celebrated writer on medicine among the

Hindus.

     Chaturdasa Bhuvanam, the fourteen lokas or states.

     Chela, a pupil of an adept in occultism;  a disciple.

     Chichakti, the power which generates thought.

     Chidagnikundum (lit. "the fireplace in the heart"), the seat

of the force which extinguishes all individual desires.

     Chidakasam, the field of consciousness.

     Chinmatra, the germ of consciousness, abstract

consciousness.

     Chit, the abstract consciousness.

  Chitta suddhi (Chitta, mind, and Suddi, purification),

purification of the mind.

     Chutuktu, the five chief Lamas of Tibet.

 

     Daemon, the incorruptible part of man;  nous;  rational

soul.

     Daenam (lit. "knowledge"), the fourth principle in man,

according to the Avesta.

     Daimonlouphote, spiritual illumination.

     Daityas, demons, Titans.

     Dama, restraint of the senses.

     Darasta, ceremonial magic practised among the Kolarian

tribes of Central India.

     Darha, ancestral spirits of the Kolarian tribes of Central

India.

     Deona or Mati, one who exercises evil spirits (Kolarian).

     Deva, God;  beings of the subjective side of Nature.

     Devachan, a blissful condition in the after-life;  heavenly

existence.

     Devanagari, the current Sanskrit alphabet.

     Dharmasoka, one of the kings of Magadha.

     Dhatu, the seven principal substances of the human body

--chyle, flesh, blood, fat, bones, marrow, semen.

     Dhyan, contemplation.  There are six stages of Dhyan,

varying in the degrees of abstraction of the Ego from sensuous

life.

     Dhyan Chohans, Devas or Gods planetary spirits.

     Dik, space.

     Diksha, initiation.

     Dosha, fault.

     Dravidians, a group of tribes inhabiting Southern India.

     Dravya, substance.

     Dugpas, the "Red Caps," evil magicians, belonging to the

left-hand path of occultism, so called in Tibet.

     Dukkhu, pain.

     Dwija Brahman, twice born;  the investiture with the sacred

thread constitutes the second birth.

 

     Elementals, generic name for all subjective beings other

than disembodied human creatures.

     Epopta, Greek for seer.

 

     Fakir, a Mahomedan recluse or Yogi.

     Fan, Bar-nang, space, eternal law.

     Fohat, Tibetan for Sakti;  cosmic force or energizing power

of the universe.

     Fravashem, absolute spirit.

 

     Gaudapada, a celebrated Brahmanical teacher, the author of

commentaries on the Sankhya Karika, Mundukya Upanishad, &c.

     Gayatri, the holiest verse of the Vedas.

     Gehs, Parsi prayers.

     Gelugpas, "Yellow Caps," the true Magi and their school, so

called in Tibet.

     Gnansaki, the power of true knowledge, one of the six

forces.

     Gujarathi, the vernacular dialect of Gujrat, a province of

Western India.

     Gunas, qualities, properties.

     Gunava, endowed with qualities.

     Guru, spiritual preceptor.

 

     Ha, a magic syllable used in sacred formula;  represents the

power of Akasa Sakti.

     Hangsa, a mystic syllable standing for evolution, it

literally means "I am he."

     Hatha Yog, a system of physical training to obtain psychic

powers, the chief feature of this system being the regulation of

breath.

     Hierophants, the High Priests.

     Hina-yana, lowest form of transmigration of the Buddhist.

     Hiong-Thsang, the celebrated chinese traveler whose writings

contain the most interesting account of India of the period.

     Hwun, spirit;  the seventh principle in man (Chinese).

 

     Ikhir Bongo, spirit of the deep of the Kolarian tribes.

     Indriya, or Deha Sanyama, control over the senses.

     "Isis" ("Isis Unveiled"), book written by Madame Blavatsky

on the Esoteric Doctrine.

     Iswara, Personal God, Lord, the Spirit in man, the Divine

principle in its active nature or condition, one of the four

states of Brahma.

     Itchasakti, will power;  force of desire;  one of the six

forces of Nature.

     Itchcha, will.

     Ivabhavat, the one substance.

 

     Jagrata, waking.

     Jagrata Avasta, the waking state;  one of the four aspects

of Pranava.

     Jains, a religious sect in India closely related to the

Buddhists.

     Jambudvipa, one of the main divisions of the world,

including India, according to the ancient Brahminical system.

     Janaka, King of Videha, a celebrated character in the Indian

epic of Ramayana.  He was a great royal sage.

     Janwas, gross form of matter.

     Japa, mystical practice of the Yogi, consisting of the

repetition of certain formula.

     Jevishis, will;  Karma Rupa;  fourth principle.

     Jiva or Karana Sarira, the second principle of man;  life.

     Jivatma, the human spirit, seventh principle in the

Microcosm.

     Jnanam, knowledge.

     Jnanendrayas, the five channels of knowledge.

     Jyotisham Jyotih, the light of lights, the supreme spirit,

so called in the Upanishads.

 

     Kabala, ancient mystical Jewish books.

     Kaliyuga, the last of the four ages in which the

evolutionary period of man is divided.  It began 3,000 years B.C.

     Kalpa, the period of cosmic activity;  a day of Brahma,

4,320 million years.

     Kama Loka, abode of desire, the first condition through

which a human entity passes in its passage, after death, to

Devachan.  It corresponds to purgatory.

     Kama, lust, desire, volition;  the Hindu Cupid.

     Kamarupa, the principle of desire in man;  the fourth

principle.

     Kapila, the founder of one of the six principal systems of

Indian philosophy--viz., the Sankhya.

     Karans, great festival of the Kolarian tribes in honour of

the sun spirit.

     Karana Sarira, the causal body;  Avidya;  ignorance;  that

which is the cause of the evolution of a human ego.

     Karma, the law of ethical causation;  the effect of an act

for the attainment of an object of personal desire, merit and

demerit.

     Karman, action;  attributes of Linga Sarira.

     Kartika, the Indian god of war, son or Siva and Parvati;  he

is also the personification of the power of the Logos.

     Kasi, another name for the sacred city of Benares.

     Keherpas, aerial form;  third principle.

     Khanda period, a period of Vedic literature.

     Khi (lit, breath);  the spiritual ego;  the sixth principle

in man (Chinese).

     Kiratarjuniya of Bkaravi, a Sanskrit epic, celebrating the

encounters of Arjuna, one of this heroes of the Maha-bharata with

the god Siva, disguised as a forester.

     Kols, one of the tribes in Central India.

     Kriyasakti, the power of thought;  one of the six forces in

Nature.

     Kshatriya, the second of the four castes into which the

Hindu nation was originally divided.

     Kshetrajnesvara, embodied spirit, the conscious ego in its

highest manifestation.

     Kshetram, the great abyss of the Kabbala;  chaos;  Yoni,

Prakriti;  space.

     Kumbhaka, retention of breath, regulated according to the

system of Hatha Yoga.

     Kundalinisakti, the power of life;  one of the six forces of

Nature.

     Kwer Shans, Chinese for third principle;  the astral body.

 

     Lama-gylongs, pupils of Lamas.

     Lao-teze, a Chinese reformer.

 

     Macrocosm, universe.

     Magi, fire worshippers;  the great magicians or wisdom-

philosophers of old.

     Maha-Bharata, the celebrated Indian epic poem.

     Mahabhashya, a commentary on the Grammar of Panini by

Patanjali.

     Mahabhautic, belonging to the macrocosmic principles.

     Mahabhutas, gross elementary principles.

     Mahaparinibbana Sutta, one of the most authoritative of the

Buddhist sacred writings.

     Maha Sunyata, space or eternal law;  the great emptiness.

     Mahat, Buddhi;  the first product of root-nature and

producer of Ahankara (egotism), and manas (thinking principle).

     Mahatma, a great soul;  an adept in occultism of the highest

order.

     Mahavanso, a Buddhist historical work written by the Bhikshu

Mohanama, the uncle of King Dhatusma.

     Maha-Yug, the aggregate of four Yugas, or ages--4,320,000

years--in the Brahmanical system.

     Manas, the mind, the thinking principle;  the fifth

principle in the septenary division.

     Manas Sanyama, perfect concentration of the mind;  control

over the mind.

     Manomaya Kosha, third sheath of the divine monad, Vedantic

equivalent for fourth and fifth principles.

     Mantra period, one of the four periods into which Vedic

literature has been divided.

     Mantra Sastra, Brahmanical writings on the occult science of

incantations.

     Mantra Tantra Shastras, works on incantation and Magic.

     Manu, the great Indian legislator.

     Manvantara, the outbreathing of the creative principle;  the

period of cosmic activity between two pralayas.

     Maruts, the wind gods.

     Mathadhipatis, heads of different religious institutions in

India.

     Matras, the quantity of a Sanskrit syllable.

     Matrikasakti, the power of speech, one of six forces in

Nature.

     Matsya Puranas, one of the Puranas.

     Maya, illusion, is the cosmic power which renders phenomenal

existence possible.

     Mayavic Upadhi, the covering of illusion, phenomenal

appearance.

     Mayavirupa, the "double;"  "doppelganger;"  "perisprit."

     Mazdiasnian, Zoroastrian (lit. "worshiping God").

     Microcosm, man.

     Mobeds, Zoroastrian priests.

     Monad, the spiritual soul, that which endures through all

changes of objective existence.

     Moneghar, the headman of a village.

     Morya, one of time royal houses of Magadha;  also the name

of a Rajpoot tribe.

     Mukta, liberated;  released from conditional existence.

     Mukti. See Mukta.

     Mula-prakriti, undifferentiated cosmic matter;  the

unmanifested cause and substance of all being.

     Mumukshatwa, desire for liberation.

 

     Nabhichakram, the seat of the principle of desire, near the

umbilicus.

     Najo, witch.

     Nanda (King), one of the kings of Magadha.

     Narayana, in mystic symbology it stands for the life

principle.

     Nava nidhi, the nine jewels, or consummation of spiritual

development.

     Neophyte, a candidate for initiation into the mysteries of

adeptship.

     Nephesh, one of the three souls, according to the Kabala;

first three principles in the human septenary.

     Neschamah, one of the three souls, according to the Kabala;

seventh principle in the human septenary.

     Nirguna, unbound;  without gunas or attributes;  the soul in

its state of essential purity is so called.

     Nirvana, beautitude, abstract spiritual existence,

absorption into all.

     Niyashes, Parsi prayers.

     Noumena, the true essential nature of being, as

distinguished from the illusive objects of sense.

     Nous, spirit, mind;  Platonic term, reason.

     Nyaya Philosophy, a system of Hindu logic founded by

Gautuma.

 

     Occultism, the study of the mysteries of Nature and the

development of the psychic powers latent in man.

     Okhema, vehicle;  Platonic term for body.

 

     Padarthas, predicates of existing things, so called in the

"Vaiseshikha," or atomic system of philosophy, founded by Kanad

(Sanskrit).

     Padma sana, a posture practised by some Indian mystics it

consists in sitting with the legs crossed one over the other and

the body straight.

     Pahans, village priests.

     Panchakosha, the five sheaths in which is enclosed the

divine monad.

     Panchikrita, developed into the five gross elements.

     Parabrahm, the supreme principle in Nature;  the universal

spirit.

     Paramarthika, one of the three states of existence according

to Vedanta;  the true, the only real one.

     Paramatma, time Supreme Spirit, one of the six forces of

Nature;  the great force.

     Parasakti, intellectual apprehension of a truth.

     Pataliputra, the ancient capital of the kingdom Magadha, in

Eastern India, a city identified with the modern Patna.

     Patanjali, the author of "Yoga Philosophy," one of the six

orthodox systems of India and of the Mahabhashya.

     Peling, the name given to Europeans in Tibet.

     Phala, retribution;  fruit or results of causes.

     Pho, animal soul.

     Pisacham, fading remnants of human beings in the state of

Kama Loka;  shells or elementaries.

     Piyadasi, another name for Asoka (q.v.)

     Plaster or Plantal,  Platonic term for the power which

moulds the substances of the universe into suitable forms.

     Popol-Vuh, the sacred book of the Guatemalans.

     Poseidonis, the last island submerged of the continent of

Atlantis.

     Pracheta, the principle of water.

     Pragna, consciousness.

     Prajapatis, the constructors of the material universe.

     Prakriti, undifferentiated matter;  the supreme principle

regarded as the substance of the universe.

     Pralaya, the period of cosmic rest.

     Prameyas, things to be proved, objects of Pramana or proof.

     Prana, the one life.

     Pranamaya Kosha, the principle of life and its vehicle;  the

second sheath of the Divine monad (Vedantic).

     Pranatman, the eternal or germ thread on which are strung,

like beads, the personal lives.  The same as Sutratma.

     Pratibhasika, the apparent or illusory life.

     Pratyaksha, perception.

     Pretya-bhava, the state of an ego under the necessity of

repeated births.

     Punarjanmam, power of evolving objective manifestation;

rebirth.

     Puraka, in-breathing, regulated according to the system of

Hatha Yoga.

     Puranas (lit. "old writings").  A collection of symbolical

Brahmanical writings.  They are eighteen in number, and are

supposed to have been composed by Vyasa, the author of the

Mahabharata.

     Purusha, spirit.

     Rajas, the quality of foulness;  passionate activity.

     Rajarshi, a king-adept.

     Raj Yoga, the true science of the development of psychic

powers and union with the Supreme Spirit.

     Rakshasas, evil spirits;  literally, raw-eaters.

     Ramayana, an epic poem describing the life of Rama, a

deified Indian hero.

     Ram Mohun Roy, the well-known Indian Reformer, died 1833.

     Rechaka, out-breathing, regulated according to the system of

Hatha Yoga.

     Rig Veda, the first of the Vedas.

     Rishabham, the Zodiacal sign Taurus, the sacred syllable

Aum.

     Rishis (lit. "revealers"), holy sages.

     Ruach, one of the souls, according to the Kabala;  second

three principles in the human septenary.

 

     Sabda, the Logos or Word.

     Saketa, the capital of the ancient Indian kingdom of

Ayodhya.

     Sukshma sariram, the subtile body.

     Sakti, the crown of the astral light;  the power of Nature.

     Sakuntala, a Sanskrit drama by Kalidasa.

     Samadhana, incapacity to diverge from the path of spiritual

progress.

     Sama, repression of mental perturbations.

     Samadhi, state of ecstatic trance.

     Samanya, community or commingling of qualities.

     Samma-Sambuddha, perfect illumination.

     Samvat, an Indian era which, is usually supposed to have

commenced 57 B.C.

     Sankaracharya, the great expositor of the monistic Vedanta

Philosophy, which denies the personality of the Divine Principle,

and affirms its unity with the spirit of man.

     Sankhya Karika, a treatise containing the aphorisms of

Kapila, the founder of the Sankhya system, one of the six schools

of Hindu philosophy.

     Sankhya Yog, the system of Yog as set forth by Sankhya

philosophers.

     Sannyasi, a Hindu, ascetic whose mind is steadfastly fixed

upon the Supreme Truth.

     Sarira, body.

     Sat, the real, Purusha.

     Sattwa, purity.

     Satva, goodness.

     Satya Loka, the abode of Truth, one of the subjective

spheres in our solar system.

     Shamanism, spirit worship;  the oldest religion of Mongolia.

     Siddhasana, one of the postures enjoined by the system of

Hatha Yoga.

     Siddhi, abnormal power obtained by spiritual development.

     Sing Bonga, sun spirit of the Kolarian tribes.

     Siva, one of the Hindu gods, with Brahma and Vishnu, forming

the Trimurti or Trinity;  the principle of destruction.

     Sivite, a worshipper of Siva, the name of a sect among the

Hindus.

     Skandhas, the impermanent elements which constitute a man.

     Slokas, stanzas (Sanskrit).

     Smriti, legal and ceremonial writings of the Hindus.

     Soham, mystic syllable representing involution;  lit. "that

am I."

     Soonium, a magical ceremony for the purpose of removing a

sickness from one person to another.

     Soorya, the sun.

     Souramanam, a method of calculating time.

     Space, Akasa;  Swabhavat (q.v.)

  Sraddha, faith.

     Sravana, receptivity, listening.

     Sthula-Sariram, the gross physical body.

     Sukshmopadhi,  fourth and fifth principles (Raja Yoga.)

     Sunyata, space;  nothingness.

     Suras, elementals of a beneficent order;  gods.

     Surpa, winnower.

     Suryasiddhanta, a Sanskrit treatise on astronomy.

     Sushupti Avastha, deep sleep;  one of the four aspects of

Pranava.

     Sutra period, one of the periods into which Vedic literature

has been divided.

     Sutratman, (lit. "the thread spirit,") the immortal

individuality upon which are strung our countless personalities.

     Svabhavat, Akasa; undifferentiated primary matter;

Prakriti.

     Svapna, dreamy condition, clairvoyance.

     Swami (lit. "a master"), the family idol.

     Swapna Avastha, dreaming state;  one of the four aspects of

Pranava.

 

     Tama, indifference, dullness.

     Tamas, ignorance, or darkness.

     Tanha, thirst;  desire for life, that which produces re-birth.

     Tanmatras, the subtile elements, the abstract counterpart of

the five elements, earth, water, fire, air and ether, consisting

of smell, taste, feeling, sight and sound.

     Tantras, works on Magic.

     Tantrika, ceremonies connected with the worship of the

goddess Sakti, who typifies Force.

     Taraka Yog, one of the Brahmanical systems for the

development of psychic powers and attainment of spiritual

knowledge.

     Tatwa, eternally existing "that;"  the different principles

in Nature.

     Tatwams, the abstract principles of existence or categories,

physical and metaphysical.

     Telugu, a language spoken in Southern India.

     Tesshu Lama, the head of the Tibetan Church.

     The Laws of Upasanas, chapter in the Book iv. of Kui-te on

the rules for aspirants for chelaship.

     Theodidaktos (lit. "God taught "), a school of philosophers

in Egypt.

     Theosophy, the Wisdom-Religion taught in all ages by the

sages of the world.

     Tikkun, Adam Kadmon, the ray from the Great Centre.

     Titiksha, renunciation.

     Toda, a mysterious tribe in India that practise black magic.

     Tridandi, (tri, "three," danda, "chastisement"), name of

BrahmanicaI thread.

     Trimurti, the Indian Trinity--Brahma, Vishnu and Siva,

Creator, Preserver and Destroyer.

     Turiya Avastha, the state of Nirvana.

     Tzong-ka-pa, celebrated Buddhist reformer of Tibet, who

instituted the order of Gelugpa Lamas.

 

     Universal Monas, the universal spirit.

     Upadana Karnam, the material cause of an effect.

     Upadhis, bases.

     Upamiti, analogy.

     Upanayana, investiture with the Brahmanical thread.

     Upanishads, Brahmanical Scriptures appended to the Vedas,

containing the esoteric doctrine of the Brahmans.

     Upanita, one who is invested with the Brahmanical thread

(lit. "brought to a spiritual teacher").

     Uparati, absence of out-going desires.

     Urvanem, spiritual ego;  sixth principle.

     Ushtanas, vital force;  second principle.

 

     Vach, speech;  the Logos;  the mystic Word.

     Vaishyas,  cattle breeders artisans;  the third caste among

the Hindus.

     Vakya Sanyama, control over speech.

     Varuna or Pracheta, the Neptune of India.

     Vasishta, a great Indian sage, one of those to whom the Rig

Veda was revealed in part.

     Vata, air.

     Vayu, the wind.

     Vayu  Puranas, one of the Puranas.

     Vedantists, followers of the Vedanta School of Philosophy,

which is divided into two branches, monists and dualists.

     Vedas, the most authoritative of the Hindu Scriptures.  The

four oldest sacred books--Rig, Yajur, Sama and Atharva--revealed

to the Rishis by Brahma.

     Vedic, pertaining to the Vedas.

     Vidya, secret knowledge.

     Vija, the primitive germ which expands into the universe.

     Vijnana-maya-kosha, the sheath of knowledge;  the fourth

sheath of the divine monad;  the fifth principle in man

(Vedanta).

     Viraj, the material universe.

     Vishnu, the second member of the Hindu trinity;  the

principle of preservation.

     Vishnuite or Vishuvite, a worshiper of Vishnu, the name of a

sect among the Hindus.

     Vrishalas, Outcasts.

     Vyasa, the celebrated Rishi, who collected and arranged the

Vedas in their present form.

     Vyavaharika, objective existence;  practical.

 

     Yajna Sutra, the name of the Brahmanical thread.

     Yama, law, the god of death.

     Yashts, the Parsi prayer-books.

     Yasna, religious book of the Parsis.

     Yasodhara, the wife of Buddha.

     Yavanacharya, the name given to Pythagoras in the Indian

books.

     Yavanas, the generic name given by the Brahmanas to younger

peoples.

     Yoga Sutras, a treatise on Yoga philosophy by Patanjali.

     Yog Vidya, the science of Yoga;  the practical method of

uniting one's own spirit with the universal spirit.

     Yogis, mystics, who develop themselves according to the

system of Patanjali's "Yoga Philosophy."

     Yudhishthira, the eldest of the five brothers, called

Pandavas, whose exploits are celebrated in the great Sanskrit

epic "Mahabharata."

 

     Zend, the sacred language of ancient Persia.

     Zhing, subtle matter;  Kama Rupa, or fourth principle

(Chinese).

     Zoroaster, the prophet of the Parsis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Instant Guide to Theosophy

Quick Explanations with Links to More Detailed Info

 

 

What is Theosophy ?  Theosophy Defined (More Detail)

 

Three Fundamental Propositions  Key Concepts of Theosophy

 

Cosmogenesis  Anthropogenesis  Root Races

 

Ascended Masters  After Death States

 

The Seven Principles of Man  Karma

 

Reincarnation   Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

 

Colonel Henry Steel Olcott  William Quan Judge

 

The Start of the Theosophical Society

 

History of the Theosophical Society

 

Theosophical Society Presidents

 

History of the Theosophical Society in Wales

 

The Three Objectives of the Theosophical Society

 

Explanation of the Theosophical Society Emblem

 

The Theosophical Order of Service (TOS)

 

Ocean of Theosophy

William Quan Judge

 

Glossaries of Theosophical Terms

 

Worldwide Theosophical Links

 

 

Index of Searchable

Full Text Versions of

Definitive

Theosophical Works

 

 

H P Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine

 

Isis Unveiled by H P Blavatsky

 

H P Blavatsky’s Esoteric Glossary

 

Mahatma Letters to A P Sinnett 1 - 25

 

A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom

Alvin Boyd Kuhn

 

Studies in Occultism

(Selection of Articles by H P Blavatsky)

 

The Conquest of Illusion

J J van der Leeuw

 

The Secret Doctrine – Volume 3

A compilation of H P Blavatsky’s

writings published after her death

 

Esoteric Christianity or the Lesser Mysteries

Annie Besant

 

The Ancient Wisdom

Annie Besant

 

Reincarnation

Annie Besant

 

The Early Teachings of The Masters

1881-1883

Edited by

C. Jinarajadasa

 

Study in Consciousness

Annie Besant

 

 

A Textbook of Theosophy

C W Leadbeater

 

A Modern Panarion

A Collection of Fugitive Fragments

From the Pen of

H P Blavatsky

 

The Perfect Way or,

The Finding of Christ

Anna Bonus Kingsford

& Edward Maitland

Part1

 

The Perfect Way or,

The Finding of Christ

Anna Bonus Kingsford

& Edward Maitland

Part2

 

Pistis Sophia

A Gnostic Gospel

Foreword by G R S Mead

 

The Devachanic Plane.

Its Characteristics

and Inhabitants

C. W. Leadbeater

 

Theosophy

Annie Besant

 

The

Bhagavad Gita

Translated from the Sanskrit

By

William Quan Judge

 

Psychic Glossary

 

Sanskrit Dictionary

 

Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy

G de Purucker

 

In The Outer Court

Annie Besant

 

Dreams and

Dream-Stories

Anna Kingsford

 

My Path to Atheism

Annie Besant

 

From the Caves and

Jungles of Hindostan

H P Blavatsky

 

The Hidden Side

Of Things

C W Leadbeater

 

Glimpses of

Masonic History

C W Leadbeater

 

Five Years Of

Theosophy,

Various Theosophical

Authors

Mystical, Philosophical, Theosophical, Historical

and Scientific Essays Selected from "The Theosophist"

Edited by George Robert Stow Mead

 

 

Obras Teosoficas En Espanol

 

La Sabiduria Antigua

Annie Besant

 

Glosario Teosofico

1892

H P Blavatsky

 

 

Theosophische Schriften Auf Deutsch

 

Die Geheimlehre

Von

H P Blavatsky