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Theosophy House
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
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
"
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
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
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 "
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Zhing, subtle matter;
Kama Rupa, or fourth principle
(Chinese).
Zoroaster, the prophet of the Parsis.
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