fThe Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol.
1
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 445 GOD IS OUR HIGHER SELF.
[[This page continued from previous section]]
§ XIII.
THE SEVEN CREATIONS.
"THERE was neither day nor night, nor sky
nor earth, nor darkness nor light, nor any other thing save only
ONE, unapprehensible by intellect, or THAT which is Brahma and
Pumis (Spirit) and Pradhana (crude matter)" (Veda: "Vishnu
Purana Commentary"); or literally: "One
Pradhanika Brahma Spirit: THAT was." The "Pradhanika
Brahma Spirit" is Mulaprakriti and Parabrahmam.
In Vishnu Purana, Parasara says to Maitreya, his pupil: -- "I
have thus explained to you, excellent Muni, six creations. . .
. the creation of the Arvaksrotas beings was the seventh, and
was that of man." Then he proceeds to speak of two additional
and very mysterious creations, variously interpreted by the commentators.
Origen, commenting upon the books written by Celsus, his opponent
-- books which were all destroyed by the prudent Church Fathers
-- evidently answers the objections of his contradictor and reveals
his system at the same time. This was evidently septenary.
But his theogony, the genesis of the stars or planets, that
of sound and colour, all found as an answer satire, and no better.
Celsus, you see, "desiring to exhibit his learning,"
speaks of a ladder of creation with seven gates,
and on the top
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 446 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
of it the eighth -- ever closed. The mysteries of the Persian
Mithras are explained and "musical reasons, moreover, are
added." . . . . And to these again he strives "to add
a second explanation connected also with musical considerations,"*
-- i.e., with the seven notes of the scale, the Seven
Spirits of the Stars, &c., &c.
Valentinus expatiates upon the power of the great Seven,
who were called to bring forth this universe after Ar(r)hetos,
or the Ineffable, whose name is composed of seven letters,
had represented the first hebdomad. This name (Ar(r)hetos)
is one to indicate the Sevenfold nature of the One (the logos).
"The goddess Rhea," says Proclus in Timaeus
(p. 121), "is a Monad, Duad, and Heptad,"
comprehending in herself all the Titanidae, "who
are seven."
The Seven Creations are found in almost every Purana.
They are all preceded by what Wilson translates -- "the indiscrete
Principle," absolute Spirit independent of any relation with
objects of sense. They are -- (1) Mahattattwa, the
Universal Soul, Infinite Intellect, or Divine Mind; (2) Bhuta
or Bhutasarga, elemental creation, the
first differentiation of Universal indiscrete Substance; (3) Indriya
or Aindriyaka, organic evolution. "These
three were the Prakrita creations, the developments of indiscrete
nature preceded by indiscrete principle"; (4) Mukhya,
the fundamental creation of perceptible things, was that
of inanimate bodies**; (5) Tairyagyonya, or
Tiryaksrotas, was that of animals; (6) Urdhwasrotas,
or that of divinities*** (?); (7) Arvaksrotas,
was that of man. (See Vishnu Purana.)
This is the order given in the exoteric texts. According
to esoteric teaching there are seven primary, and seven secondary
"creations;" the former being the Forces self-evolving
from the one causeless FORCE; the latter, showing
the manifested Universe emanating from the already differentiated
divine elements.
Esoterically, as well as exoterically, all the above enumerated
Creations stand for the (7) periods of Evolution, whether after
an "Age" or a "Day" of Brahma. This is the
teaching par excellence of Occult Philosophy, which,
however, never uses the term "creation," nor even that
of evolution, "with regard to primary 'Creation':"
but calls all such forces "the aspects of
the Causeless Force." In the Bible
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Origen contra Celsum, b. vi., chap. xxii.
** The text says: "And the fourth creation is here the
primary, for things immovable are emphatically known
as primary." (See Fitzedward Hall's Corrections.)
*** How can "divinities" have been created after
the animals? The esoteric meaning of the expression "animals"
is the germs of all animal life including man.
Man is called a sacrificial animal, and an animal
that is the only one among animal creation who sacrifices to the
gods. Moreover, by the "sacred animals,"
the 12 signs of the zodiac are often meant in the sacred texts,
as already stated.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 447 THE ORDER OF THE EVOLUTION.
the seven periods are dwarfed into the six days of creation and
the seventh day of rest, and the Westerns adhere to the
letter. In the Hindu philosophy, when the active Creator has produced
the world of gods, the germs of all the undifferentiated
elements and the rudiments of future senses (the world of noumena,
in short), the Universe remains unaltered for a "Day of Brahma,"
a period of 4,320,000,000 years. This is the seventh passive
period or the "Sabbath day" of Eastern philosophy, that
follows six periods of active evolution. In the Satapatha
Brahmana "Brahma" (neuter), the absolute Cause
of all Causes, radiates the gods. Having radiated
the gods (through its inherent nature) the work is interrupted.
In the 1st Book of Manu it is said, "At the expiration of
each night (pralaya) Brahma, having been asleep, awakes, and,
through the sole energy of the motion, CAUSES
to emanate from itself the spirit, which in its essence
is, and yet is not."
In the Sepher Jezirah, the Kabalistic Book of
Creation, the author has evidently repeated the words of Manu.
In it the Divine Substance is represented as having alone existed
from the eternity, boundless and absolute; and as having emitted
from itself the Spirit. "One is the Spirit of the living
God, blessed be his Name, who liveth for ever! Voice, Spirit,
and Word, this is the Holy Spirit." (Sepher Jezireh,
chap. 1, Mishna IX.) And this is the Kabalistic
abstract Trinity, so unceremoniously anthropomorphized by the
Fathers. From this triple ONE emanated the whole Kosmos. First
from ONE emanated number TWO, or Air, the creative element; and
then number THREE, Water, proceeded from the
air; Ether or Fire complete the mystic four,
the Arba-il. (Ibid.) In the Eastern doctrine Fire is the first
Element -- Ether, synthesizing the whole (since it contains
all of them).
In the Vishnu Purana, the whole seven periods
are given, and the progressive Evolution of "Spirit-Soul,"
and of the seven forms of matter (or principles) are shown. It
is impossible to enumerate them in this work. The reader is asked
to peruse one of the Puranas.
"R. Yehudah began, it is written: 'Elohim said: Let there
be a firmament, in the midst of waters. . . . . At the time that
the Holy . . . created the world, He (they) created seven heavens
Above. He created seven earths Below, seven seas, seven days,
seven rivers, seven weeks, seven years, seven times, and 7,000
years that the world has been. . . . . the seventh of all the
millennium. So here are seven earths Below, they are all inhabited
except those which are above, and those . . . . below. And . .
. . between each earth, a heaven (firmament) is spread out between
each other. . . . . And there are in them (these earths) creatures
who look different from each other . . . . but if you object and
say that all the children of the world came out from Adam,
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 448 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
it is not so. . . . . And the lower earths, where do they come
from? They are from the chain of the earth, and
from the heaven below," etc., etc.*
Irenaeus is our witness (and a very unwilling one, too) that the
Gnostics taught the same system, veiling very carefully the true
esoteric meaning. This "veiling," however, is identical
with that of the Vishnu Purana and others. Thus Irenaeus writes
of the Marcosians: "They maintain that first of all the four
elements, fire, water, earth and air, were produced after the
image of the primary tetrad above, and that then if we
add their operations, namely, heat, cold, dryness and moisture,
an exact likeness of the ogdoad is presented." (B. i. ch.
xvii.)
Only this "likeness" and the ogdoad itself
is a blind, just as in the seven creations of the Vishnu Puranas,
to which two more are added of which the eighth, termed Anugraha,
"possesses both the qualities of goodness and darkness,"
a Sankhyan more than a Puranic idea. For Irenaeus says again (b.
I. xxx. 6) that "they (the Gnostics) had a like eighth creation
which was good and bad, divine and human. They affirm that man
was formed on the eighth day. Sometimes they affirm that
he was made on the sixth day, and at others
on the eighth; unless, perchance, they mean that his earthly part
was formed on the sixth day and his fleshly part (?) on the eighth
day; these two being distinguished by them."
They were so "distinguished," but not as Irenaeus gives
it. The Gnostics had a superior Hebdomad, and
an inferior one, in Heaven; and a third terrestrial Hebdomad,
on the plane of matter. IAO, the mystery
god and the Regent of the Moon, as given in Origen's chart, was
the chief of these superior "Seven Heavens,"**
hence identical with the chief of the lunar Pitris, that
name being given by them to the lunar Dhyan-Chohans. "They
affirm that these seven heavens are intelligent, and speak
of them as being angels," writes the same Irenaeus;
and adds that on this account they termed Iao Hebdomas, while
his mother was called "Ogdoas," because,
as he explains, "she preserved the number of the first
begotten and primary Ogdoad of the Pleroma." (Ibid.
b. I, v. 2).
This "first begotten Ogdoad" was
(a) in theogony the second Logos (the manifested)
because he was born of the Seven-fold first Logos,
hence he is the eighth on this manifested plane; and (b)
in astrolatry, it was the Sun, Marttanda -- the eighth
son of Aditi, whom she rejects while preserving her Seven Sons,
the planets. For the ancients have never regarded the
Sun as a planet, but as a central and fixed Star. This,
then, is the second Hebdomad born of the Seven-rayed one,
Agni, the Sun
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Qabbalah, p. 415-16, by T. Myer, Philadelphia.
** Superior to the Spirits or "Heavens" of the Earth
only.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 449 THE SIX STELLAR GODS.
and what not, only not the seven planets, which are Surya's brothers,
not his Sons. These Astral gods, whose
chief with the Gnostics was Ildabaoth* (from Ilda "child,"
and Baoth "the egg"), the son of Sophia Achamoth,
the daughter of Sophia (Wisdom), whose region is the Pleroma,
were his (Ildabaoth's) sons. He produces from himself these six
stellar spirits: Jove (Jehovah), Sabaoth,
Adonai, Eloi, Osraios, Astaphaios,**
and it is they who are the second, or inferior Hebdomad.
As to the third, it is composed of the seven primeval
men, the shadows of the lunar gods, projected by the first Hebdomad.
In this the Gnostics did not, as seen, differ much from the esoteric
doctrine except that they veiled it. As to the charge made by
Irenaeus, who was evidently ignorant of the true tenets of the
"Heretics," with regard to man being created on the
sixth day, and man being created on the eighth,
this relates to the mysteries of the inner man.
It will become comprehensible to the reader only after he has
read Book II., and understood well the Anthropogenesis of
the Esoteric doctrine.
Ildabaoth is a copy of Manu. The latter boasts, "Oh, best
of twice-born men! Know that I (Manu) am he, the creator of all
this world, whom that male Viraj . . . spontaneously produced"
(I., 33). He first creates the ten lords of Being, the Prajapatis,
who, as verse 36 says . . . "produce seven other Manus."
(The Ordinances of Manu.) Ildabaoth does likewise:
"I am Father and God, and there is no one above me,"
he exclaims. For which his mother coolly puts him down by saying,
"Do not lie, Ildabaoth, for the father of all, the first
man (Anthropos) is above thee,
and so is Anthropos, the Son of Anthropos"
(Irenaeus, b. I, ch. xxx., 6). This is a good proof that
there were three Logoi (besides the Seven born of the First),
one of these being the Solar Logos. And, again, who was
that "Anthropos" himself, so much higher than Ildabaoth?
The Gnostic records alone can solve this riddle. In Pistis
Sophia the four-vowelled name IEOV is in
each case accompanied by the epithet of "the Primal, or First
man." This shows again that the gnosis was but an echo of
our archaic doctrine. The names answering to Parabrahm, to Brahm,
and Manu (the first thinking man) are composed of one-vowelled,
three-vowelled and seven-vowelled sounds. Marcus, whose philosophy
was certainly more Pythagorean than anything else, speaks of a
revelation to him of the seven heavens sounding each one vowel
as they pronounced the seven names of the seven (angelic) hierarchies.
When spirit has permeated every minutest atom of the seven principles
of Kosmos, then the secondary creation, after the above-mentioned
period of rest, begins.
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* See "Isis Unveiled," Vol. II., p. 183.
** See also King's Gnostics. Other sects regarded Jehovah
as Ildabaoth himself King identifies him with Saturn.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 450 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
"The creators (Elohim) outline in the second 'hour'
the shape of man," says Rabbi Simeon (The Nuctameron
of the Hebrews). "There are twelve hours in
the day," says the Mishna, "and it
is during these that creation is accomplished." The "twelve
hours of the day" are again the dwarfed copy, the faint,
yet faithful, echo of primitive Wisdom. They are like the 12,000
divine years of the gods, a cyclic blind. Every "Day of Brahma"
has 14 Manus, which the Hebrew Kabalists, following, however,
in this the Chaldeans, have disguised into 12 "Hours."*
The Nuctameron of Apollonius of Tyana is the same thing.
"The Dodecahedron lies concealed in the perfect Cube,"
say the Kabalists. The mystic meaning of this is, that the twelve
great transformations of Spirit into matter (the 12,000 divine
years) take place during the four great ages, or the first
Mahayuga. Beginning with the metaphysical and the supra-human,
it ends in the physical and purely human natures of Kosmos and
man. Eastern philosophy can give the number of mortal years that
run along the line of spiritual and physical evolutions of the
seen and the unseen, if Western science fails to do so.
Primary Creation is called the Creation of Light
(Spirit); and the Secondary -- that of
Darkness (matter).** Both are found in Genesis, chap.
i., v. 2, and at the beginning of chapter ii. The first is the
emanation of self-born gods (Elohim); the second of physical
nature.
This is why it is said in the Zohar: -- "Oh, companions,
companions, man as emanation was both man and woman; as well on
the side of the FATHER as on the side of the
MOTHER. And this is the sense of the words: --
And Elohim spoke: 'Let there be Light and it was Light!' . . .
And this is the 'two-fold man'" Light, moreover, on our plane,
is darkness in the higher spheres.
"Man and woman on the side of the FATHER" (Spirit) refers
to Primary Creation; and on the side of the Mother (matter)
to the secondary. The two-fold man is Adam Kadmon, the male and
female abstract prototype and the differentiated Elohim.
Man proceeds from the Dhyan Chohan, and is a "Fallen
Angel," a god in exile, as will be shown.
In India these creations were described as follows: --
(I.) Mahat-tattwa creation -- so-called because it was the primordial
self-evolution of that which had to become Mahat -- the
"divine MIND, conscious and intelligent";
esoterically, "the spirit of the Universal soul."
. . . "Worthiest of ascetics, through its potency (the
potency of that cause); every produced cause
comes by its proper nature." (Vishnu Purana.)
"Seeing that the potencies of all beings are under-
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Elsewhere, however, the identity is revealed. See supra,
the quotation from Ibn-Gabirol and his 7 heavens, 7 earths,
etc.
** This must not be confused with precosmic "DARKNESS,"
the Divine ALL.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 451 MANY VERSIONS OF THE ONE TRUTH.
stood only through the knowledge of That (Brahma),
which is beyond reasoning, creation, and the like, such potencies
are referable to Brahma." THAT, then, precedes
the manifestation. "The first was Mahat,"
says Linga Purana; for the ONE (the That)
is neither first nor last, but
ALL. Exoterically, however, this manifestation is the work
of the "Supreme One" (a natural effect,
rather, of an Eternal Cause); or, as the Commentator says,
it might have been understood to mean that Brahma was then created
(?), being identified with Mahat, active intelligence
or the operating will of the Supreme. Esoteric philosophy renders
it "the operating LAW."
It is on the right comprehension of this tenet in the Brahmanas
and Puranas that hangs, we believe, the apple of discord between
the three Vedantin Sects: the Advaita, Dwaita, and the Visishtadvaitas.
The first arguing rightly that Parabrahman, having no relation,
as the absolute all, to the manifested world -- the Infinite
having no connection with the finite -- can neither will
nor create; that, therefore, Brahma, Mahat, Iswara, or
whatever name the creative power may be known by, creative gods
and all, are simply an illusive aspect of Parabrahmam in the conception
of the conceivers; while the other sects identify the impersonal
Cause with the Creator, or Iswara.
Mahat (or Maha-Buddhi) is, with the Vaishnavas, however,
divine mind in active operation, or, as Anaxagoras
has it, "an ordering and disposing mind, which was the cause
of all things," -- [[Nous o diakosmonte kai panton aitios]].
Wilson saw at a glance the suggestive connection between Mahat
and the Phoenician Mot, or Mut, who was
female with the Egyptians -- the Goddess Mout, the "Mother"
-- "which, like Mahat," he says, "was the first
product of the mixture (?) of Spirit and matter, and the first
rudiment of Creation": "Ex connexione autem ejus spiritus
prodidit Mot . . . . . From whose seed were created all living
things" -- repeats Brucker (I., 240) -- giving it a still
more materialistic and anthropomorphic colouring.
Nevertheless, the esoteric sense of the doctrine is seen through
every exoteric sentence on the very face of the old Sanscrit texts
that treat of primordial Creation. "The Supreme Soul, the
all permeant (Sarvaga) Substance of the World, having
entered (been drawn) into matter (prakriti)
and Spirit (purusha), agitated the mutable and the
immutable principles the season of Creation (manvantara)
having arrived."* . . .
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* The nous of the Greeks, which is (spiritual or divine)
mind, or mens, "Mahat," operates upon matter
in the same way; it "enters into" and agitates
it:
"Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus,
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet."
In the Phoenician Cosmogony, "Spirit mixing with its own
principles gives rise to [[Footnote continued on next page]]
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 452 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
Esoteric doctrine teaches that the Dhyan Chohans are the collective
aggregate of divine Intelligence or primordial mind,
and that the first Manus -- the seven "mind-born" Spiritual
Intelligences -- are identical with the former. Hence the "Kwan-shi-yin"
-- "the golden Dragon in whom are the seven," of Stanza
III. -- is the primordial Logos, or Brahma, the first manifested
creative Power; and the Dhyani-Energies are the Manus, or Manu-Swayambhuva
collectively. The direct connection, moreover, between the
"Manus" and "Mahat" is easy to see. Manu
is from the root man, "to think";
and thinking proceeds from the mind. It is, in Cosmogony, the
pre-nebular period.
(II.) "The second Creation," "Bhuta,"
was of the rudimental principles (Tanmatras), thence termed the
elemental creation (Bhuta-sarga).* It is the
period of the first breath of the differentiation of the pre-Cosmic
Elements or matter. Bhutadi means literally "the
origin of the Elements," and precedes Bhuta-sarga
-- the "creation" or differentiation of those
Elements in primordial "Akasa" (Chaos or Vacuity).**
In the "Vishnu Purana" it is said to proceed along,
and belong to, the triple aspect of Ahankara, translated
Egotism, but meaning rather that untranslateable term the "I-AM-NESS,"
that which first issues from "Mahat," or divine mind;
the first shadowy outline of Self-hood, for "pure" Ahankara
becomes "passionate" and finally "rudimental"
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
[[Footnote continued from previous page]] creation" also;
(Brucker, I., 240); the Orphic triad shows an
identical doctrine: for there Phanes (or Eros), Chaos,
containing crude undifferentiated Cosmic matter,
and Chronos (time), are the three co-operating principles,
emanating from the Unknowable and concealed point, which
produce the work of "Creation." And they are the Hindu
Purusha (phanes), Pradhana (chaos), and Kala
(Chronos) or time. The good Professor Wilson does not
like the idea, as no Christian clergyman, however liberal, would.
He remarks that "as presently explained,. the mixture
(of the Supreme Spirit or Soul) is not mechanical;
it is an influence or effect exerted upon intermediate
agents which produce effects." The sentence in Vishnu
Purana: "As fragrance affects the mind from its proximity
merely, and not from any immediate operation upon mind itself,
so the Supreme influenced the elements of creation,"
the reverend and erudite Sanscritist correctly explains . . .
: "As perfumes do not delight the mind by actual contact,
but by the impression they make upon the sense of smelling, which
communicates it to the mind," adding: "The entrance
of the Supreme into spirit, as well as matter, is
less intelligible than the view elsewhere taken of it, as
the infusion of spirit, identified with the supreme,
into Prakriti or matter alone." He prefers the verse in Padma
Purana: "He who is called the male (spirit)
of Prakriti . . . that same divine Vishnu entered into Prakriti."
This "view" is certainly more akin to the plastic character
of certain verses in the Bible concerning the Patriarchs, such
as Lot (Gen. xix., 34-38) and even Adam (iv.,
v. 1), and others of a still more anthropomorphic nature.
But it is just that which led Humanity to Phallicism,
Christian religion being honeycombed with it, from the first
chapter of Genesis down to the Revelation.
* All these sentences are quoted from "Vishnu Purana,"
Book I., ch. v.
** Vishnu is both Bhutesa, "Lord of the Elements, and all
things," and Viswarupa, "Universal
Substance or Soul."
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 453 THE SEVEN CREATIONS.
(initial); it is "the origin of conscious as of all unconscious
being," though the Esoteric school rejects the idea
of anything being "unconscious" -- save on this (our)
plane of illusion and ignorance. At this stage of the Second Creation,
the second hierarchy of the Manus appear, the Dhyan Chohans or
Devas, who are the origin of Form (rupa): the Chitrasikhandina
(bright-crested) or the Riksha -- those
Rishis who have become the informing souls of the seven stars
(of the Great Bear).* In astronomical and Cosmogonical language
this Creation relates to the first stage of Cosmic-life, the Fire-Mist
Period after its Chaotic stage,** when atoms issue from Laya.
(III.) The third (the Indriya) was the modified
form of Ahankara, the conception of "I," (from
"Aham," "I") termed the
organic Creation, or creation of the senses (Aindriyaka).
"These three were the Prakrita creation, the (discrete)
developments of indiscrete nature preceded by the indiscrete principle."
"Preceded by," ought to be replaced here with "beginning
by," Buddhi; for the latter is neither a discrete nor an
indiscrete quantity, but partakes of the nature
of both, in man as in Kosmos: a unit -- a human MONAD on the plane
of illusion -- when once freed from the three forms of Ahankara
and liberated from its terrestrial manas, Buddhi becomes truly
a continued quantity, both in duration and extension, because
eternal and immortal. Earlier it is stated, that the third
Creation "abounding with the quality of goodness, is termed
Urdhvasrotas"; and a page or two further
the Urdhvasrotas creation is referred to as
"the sixth creation . . . that of the divinities" (p.
75). This shows plainly that earlier as well as later manvantaras
have been purposely confused, to prevent the pro-
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* See concerning their post-types, the Treatise
written by Trithemius (Agrippa's master, 16th cent.). "Concerning
the seven secondaries, or Spiritual Intelligences, who, after
God, actuate the Universe;" giving out, besides secret cycles
and several prophecies, certain facts and beliefs about the Genii,
or the Elohim, which preside over and guide the septenary stages
of the World's Course.
** From the first, the Orientalists have found themselves beset
by great difficulties with regard to any possible order in the
Puranic Creations. Brahma is very often confused with
Brahm, by Wilson, for which he is criticised by his successors.
The "Original Sanscrit Texts" are
preferred by Mr. Fitzedward Hall for the translation of Vishnu
Purana and texts, to those used by Wilson. "Had Professor
Wilson enjoyed the advantages which are now at the command of
the student of Indian philosophy, unquestionably he would have
expressed himself differently," as said by the editor of
his works. This reminds one of the answer given by one of Thomas
Taylor's admirers to those scholars who criticised his translations
of Plato. "Thomas Taylor may have had less knowledge of the
Greek than his critics have, but he understood Plato far better
than they do," he said. Our present Orientalists disfigure
the mystic sense of the Sanskrit texts far more than
Wilson ever did, though the latter is undeniably guilty of very
gross errors.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 454 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
fane from perceiving the truth. This is called "incongruity"
and "contradictions" by the Orientalists.*
This "creation" of the immortals, the "Deva-Sarga,"
is the last of the first series, and has a universal reference;
namely, to Evolutions in general, not specifically to our Manvantara;
but the latter begins with the same over and over again, showing
that it refers to several distinct Kalpas. For it is said "at
the close of the past (Padma) Kalpa the divine
Brahma awoke from his night of sleep and beheld the universe void."
Then Brahma is shown going once more over the "seven creations"
in the secondary stage of evolution, repeating the first three
on the objective plane.
(IV.) The Mukhya, the Primary as it begins the
series of four. Neither the word "inanimate" bodies
nor yet immovable things, as translated by Wilson, gives
a correct idea of the Sanskrit terms used. Esoteric philosophy
is not the only one to reject the idea of any atom being inorganic,
for it is found also in orthodox Hinduism. Moreover, Wilson
himself says (in his collected Works, vol. iii.,
p. 381): "All the Hindu systems consider vegetable bodies
as endowed with life . . . " Charachara, or
the synonymous sthavara and jangama, is,
therefore, inaccurately rendered by "animate and inanimate,"
"sentient beings," and "unconscious," or "conscious
and unconscious beings," etc., etc. "Locomotive and
fixed" would be better, since trees are considered to possess
souls." Mukhya is the "creation" or organic
evolution of the vegetable kingdom. In this secondary Period,
the three degrees of Elemental or Rudimental Kingdoms are evolved
in this world, corresponding inversely in order to the
three Prakritic creations during the Primary period of Brahma's
activity. As in that period, in the words of "Vishnu Purana":
"The first creation was that of Mahat (Intellect),
the second, of Tanmatras (rudimental principles), and
the third, that of the senses (Aindriyaka)"; in this one,
the order of the Elemental Forces stands thus: (1) The nascent
centres of Force (intellectual and physical); (2) the rudimental
principles -- nerve force, so to say; and (3)
nascent apperception, which is the Mahat
of the lower kingdoms, especially developed in the third
order of Elementals; these are succeeded by the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* "The three Creations beginning with Intelligence are elemental,
but the six creations which proceed from the series of which Intellect
is the first are the work of Brahma" (Vayu-Purana).
Here "creations" mean everywhere stages of
Evolution. Mahat, "Intellect" or mind
(which corresponds with Manas, the former being on the Cosmic,
and the latter on the human plane) stands here, too, lower than
Buddhi or Supra-divine Intelligence. Therefore, when
we read in Linga Purana that "the first Creation
was that of Mahat, Intellect being the first in manifestation,"
we must refer that (specified) creation to the first evolution
of our system or even our Earth, none of the preceding ones being
discussed in the Puranas, but only occasionally
hinted at.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 455 CREATIONS CONTINUED.
objective kingdom of minerals, in which latter that apperception
is entirely latent, to re-develop only in the plants). The mukhya
"Creation," then, is the middle point between the
three lower and the three higher kingdoms, which represent the
seven esoteric kingdoms of Kosmos, as of Earth.
(V.) The Tiryaksrotas (or Tairyagyonya) creation,* that
of the "(sacred) animals," corresponding
only on Earth, to the dumb animal creation. That which is meant
by "animals," in primary Creation, is the germ
of awakening consciousness or of apperception, that
which is faintly traceable in some sensitive plants on Earth and
more distinctly in the protistic monera.** On our globe,
during the first round, animal "creation" precedes that
of man, while the former (or mammal) evolves from the latter in
our fourth round -- on the physical plane: in Round I. the animal
atoms are drawn into a cohesion of human physical form; while
in Round IV. the reverse occurs according to magnetic conditions
developed during life. And this is metempsychosis (See
"Mineral Monad" in "Five
Years of Theosophy," p. 276). This fifth stage
of evolution, called exoterically "Creation," may be
viewed in both the Primary and Secondary periods,
one as the Spiritual and Cosmic, the other as the material and
terrestrial. It is Archibiosis, or
life-origination -- "origination," so far, of course,
as the manifestation of life on all the seven planes
is concerned. It is at this period of Evolution that the absolutely
eternal universal motion, or vibration, that which is called
in Esoteric language "the GREAT BREATH," differentiates
in the primordial, first manifested ATOM. More and more, as chemical
and physical sciences progress, does this occult axiom find its
corroboration in the world of knowledge: the scientific hypothesis,
that even the simplest elements of matter are identical in nature
and differ from each other only owing to the variety of the distributions
of atoms in the molecule or speck of substance, or by
the modes of its atomic vibration, gains every
day more ground.
Thus, as the differentiation of the primordial germ of life has
to precede the evolution of the Dhyan Chohan of the third
group or hierarchy of Being in Primary Creation, before those
"gods" can become rupa (embodied in their first ethereal
form), so animal creation has to precede,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Professor Wilson translates it, as though animals were higher
on the scale of "creation" than divinities, or angels,
although the truth about the devas is very plainly stated further
on. This "creation," says the text, is both primary
(Prakrita) and secondary (Vaikrita). It
is the latter, as regards the origin of the gods from Brahma (the
personal anthropomorphic creator of our material
universe); it is the former (primary) as affecting
Rudra, who is the immediate production of the first principle.
Rudra is not alone a title of Siva, but embraces agents of creation,
angels and men, as will be shown further on.
** Neither plant nor animal, but an existence between the two.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 456 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
for that same reason, divine MAN on earth. And this is
why we find in the Puranas: "The fifth, the Tairyagyonya
creation, was that of animals, and --
(VI). The Urdhvasrotas creation, or that of divinities (Vishnu
Purana Book I. chap. i.). But these (divinities)
are simply the prototypes of the First Race, the fathers of their
"mind-born" progeny with the soft bones.* It
is these who became the Evolvers of the "Sweat-born"
-- an expression explained in Book II. Finally, the sixth "Creation"
is followed, and "Creation in general, closed by
--
(VII.) The evolution of the "Arvaksrotas beings,
which was the seventh, and was that of man" (Vishnu Purana,
Book I.).
The "eighth creation" mentioned is no Creation at
all; it is a blind again, for it refers to a purely mental
process: the cognition of the "ninth" creation, which,
in its turn, is an effect, manifesting in the secondary of
that which was a "Creation" in the Primary (Prakrita)
Creation.** The Eighth, then, called Anugraha
(the Pratyayasarga or the intellectual creation
of the Sankhyas, explained in Karika, v. 46,
p. 146), is "that creation of which we have a perception"
-- in its esoteric aspect -- and "to which we give intellectual
assent (Anugraha) in contradistinction to organic creation."
It is the correct perception of our relations to the whole
range of "gods" and especially of those we bear to the
Kumaras -- the so-called "Ninth Creation"
-- which is in reality an aspect of or reflection of the sixth
in our manvantara (the Vaivasvata). "There is a ninth,
the Kumara Creation, which is both primary and secondary,"
says Vishnu Purana, the oldest of such texts.***
"The Kumaras," explains an esoteric
text,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* "Created beings" -- explains Vishnu Purana
-- "although they are destroyed (in their individual
forms) at the periods of dissolution, yet being affected by the
good or evil acts of former existences, are
never exempted from their consequences. And when Brahma produces
the world anew, they are the progeny of his will . . ." "Collecting
his mind into itself (Yoga willing), Brahma creates
the four orders of beings, termed gods, demons, progenitors,
and MEN" . . . "progenitors"
meaning the prototypes and Evolvers of the first Root Race of
men. The progenitors are the Pitris, and are of seven classes.
They are said in exoteric mythology to be born of Brahma's
side, like Eve from the rib of Adam.
** "These notions," remarks Dr. Wilson, "the birth
of Rudra and the saints, seem to have been borrowed from
the Saivas, and to have been awkwardly engrafted upon the Vaishnava
system." The esoteric meaning ought to have been consulted
before venturing such a hypothesis.
*** Parasara, the Vedic Rishi, who received the Vishnu Purana
from Pulastya and taught it to Maitreya, is placed by the Orientalists
at various epochs. As correctly observed, in the Hindu Class.
Dict: -- "Speculations as to his era differ widely from
575 B.C. to 1391 B.C., and cannot be trusted."
Quite so; but no less, however, than any other date as assigned
by the Sanskritists, so famous in this department of arbitrary
fancy.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 457 WHO THE KUMARAS ARE.
"are the Dhyanis, derived immediately from the supreme Principle,
who reappear in the Vaivasvata Manu period, for the progress of
mankind."* The commentator of the Vishnu Purana corroborates
it, by remarking that "these sages live as long
as Brahma; and they are only created by him in the first Kalpa,
although their generation is very commonly and inconsistently
introduced in the Varaha, or Padma Kalpa"
(the secondary). Thus, the Kumaras are, exoterically, "the
creation of Rudra or Nilalohita, a form of Siva, by Brahma, and
of certain other mind-born sons of Brahma. But, in the esoteric
teaching, they are the progenitors of the true spiritual SELF
in the physical man -- the higher Prajapati, while the Pitris,
or lower Prajapati, are no more than the fathers of the
model, or type of his physical form, made "in their image."
Four (and occasionally five) are mentioned freely in
the exoteric texts, three Kumaras being secret.** (Compare what
is said of "The Fallen Angels" in Book II.).
The Exoteric four are: Sanat-Kumara, Sananda, Sanaka, and Sanatana;
and the esoteric three are: Sana, Kapila, and Sanat-sujata. Special
attention is once more drawn to this class of Dhyan Chohans, for
herein lies the mystery of generation and heredity hinted at in
Book I. (See the four Orders of Angelic Beings; Comment on
Stanza VII.). Book II. explains their position in
the divine Hierarchy. Meanwhile, let us see what the exoteric
texts say about them.
They do not say much; nothing to him who fails to read between
the lines. "We must have recourse, here, to other Puranas
for the elucidation of this term," remarks Wilson, who does
not suspect for one moment that he is in the presence of the "Angels
of Darkness," the mythical "great enemy" of his
Church. Therefore, he contrives to elucidate no more
than that these (divinities) DECLINING TO CREATE PROGENY*** (and
thus rebelling against Brahma), remained, as the name
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* They may indeed mark a "special" or extra creation,
since it is they who, by incarnating themselves within the
senseless human shells of the two first Root-races, and a great
portion of the Third Root-race -- create, so to speak, a new
race: that of thinking, self-conscious and divine men.
** "The four Kumaras (are) the mind-born Sons of Brahma.
Some specify seven" (H. Class. Dict.).
All these seven Vaidhatra, the patronymic of the Kumaras,
"the Maker's Sons," are mentioned and described in Iswara
Krishna's "Sankhya Karika" with the Commentary of Gaudapadacharya
(Sankaracharya's Paraguru) attached to it. It discusses
the nature of the Kumaras, though it refrains from mentioning
by name all the seven Kumaras, but calls them instead
"the seven sons of Brahma," which they are, as they
are created by Brahma in Rudra. The list of names it gives us
is: Sanaka, Sanandana, Sanatana, Kapila, Ribhu, and Panchasikha.
But these are again all aliases.
*** So untrustworthy are some translations of the Orientalists
that in the French Translation of Hari-Vamsa, it
is said "The seven Prajapati, Rudra, Skanda (his son) [[Footnote
continued on next page]]
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 458 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
of the first implies, ever boys, Kumaras: that is, ever pure and
innocent, whence their creation is also called the "Kumara."
(Book I. chap. v., Vishnu Purana.) The
Puranas, however, may afford a little more light. "Being
ever as he was born, he is here called a youth; and hence his
name is well known as Sanat-Kumara" (Linga purana,
prior section LXX. 174.) In the Saiva Purana,
the Kumaras are always described as Yogins. The Kurma Purana,
after enumerating them, says: "These five, O Brahmans, were
Yogins, who acquired entire exemption from passion." They
are five, because two of the Kumaras fell.
Of all the seven great divisions of Dhyan-Chohans, or Devas, there
is none with which humanity is more concerned than with the Kumaras.
Imprudent are the Christian Theologians who have degraded them
into fallen Angels, and now call them "Satan"
and Demons; as among these heavenly denizens who refuse to
create, the Archangel Michael -- the greatest patron
Saint of Western and Eastern Churches, under his double name of
St. Michael and his supposed copy on earth, St. George conquering
the DRAGON -- has to be allowed one of the most
prominent places. (See Book II., "The Sacred Dragons and
their Slayers.")
The Kumaras, the "mind-born Sons" of Brahma-Rudra
(or Siva)
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
[[Footnote continued from previous page]] and Sanat-Kumara proceeded
to create beings." Whereas, as Wilson shows, the original
is: "These seven . . . created progeny; and so did Rudra,
but Skanda and Sanat Kumara, restraining their power,
abstained from creation." The "four orders of beings"
are referred to sometimes as "Ambhamsi," which Wilson
renders: "literally Waters," and believes it "a
mystic term." It is one, no doubt; but he evidently failed
to catch the real esoteric meaning. "Waters"
and "water" stand as the symbol for Akasa, the "primordial
Ocean of Space," on which Narayana, the self-born Spirit,
moves: reclining on that which is its progeny (See
Manu). "Water is the body of Nara; thus we
have heard the name of water explained. Since Brahma rests
on the water, therefore he is termed Narayana"
(Linga, Vayu, and Markandeya Puranas)
". . . Pure, Purusha created the Waters pure . . ."
at the same time Water is the third principle in material Kosmos,
and the third in the realm of the Spiritual: Spirit of
Fire, Flame, Akasa, Ether, Water, Air, Earth, are the cosmic,
sidereal, psychic, spiritual and mystic principles, pre-eminently
occult, in every plane of being. "Gods,
Demons, Pitris and men," are the four orders of beings to
whom the term Ambhamsi is applied (in the Vedas it is a synonym
of gods): because they are all the product of WATERS (mystically),
of the Akasic Ocean, and of the Third Principle in nature. Pitris
and men on earth are the transformations (rebirths) of gods and
demons (Spirits) on a higher plane. Water is, in another sense,
the feminine principle. Venus Aphrodite is the personified Sea,
and the mother of the god of love, the generator of all the gods
as much as the Christian Virgin Mary is Mare (the sea), the mother
of the Western God of Love, Mercy and Charity. If the student
of Esoteric philosophy thinks deeply over the subject he is sure
to find out all the suggestiveness of the term Ambhamsi, in its
manifold relations to the Virgin in Heaven, to the Celestial Virgin
of the Alchemists, and even to the "Waters of Grace"
of the modern Baptist.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 459 THE PATRON-GUIDE OF ISRAEL.
the howling and terrific destroyer of human passions and physical
senses, which are ever in the way of the development
of the higher spiritual perceptions and the growth of the inner
eternal man -- mystically,* are the progeny of Siva, the Mahayogi,
the great patron of all the Yogis and mystics of India. They
themselves, being the "Virgin-Ascetics," refuse to create
the material being MAN. Well may they be suspected of
a direct connection with the Christian Archangel Michael, the
"Virgin Combatant" of the Dragon Apophis,
whose victim is every soul united too loosely to
its immortal Spirit, the Angel who, as shown by the Gnostics,
refused to create just as the Kumaras did. (See Book
II., "The Mystic Dragons and their Slayers.")
. . . Does not that patron-Angel of the Jews preside
over Saturn (Siva or Rudra), and the Sabbath, the day of
Saturn? Is he not shown of the same essence with his father (Saturn),
and called the "Son of Time," Kronos, or
Kala (time), a form of Brahma (Vishnu and Siva)?" And
is not "Old Time" of the Greeks, with its scythe and
sand-glass, identical with the "Ancient of Days" of
the Kabalists, the latter "Ancient" being one with the
Hindu "Ancient of Days," Brahma (in his triune form),
whose name is also "Sanat," the Ancient? Every Kumara
bears the prefix of Sanat and Sana; and Sanaischara
is Saturn, the planet (Sani and Sarra), the King Saturn whose
Secretary in Egypt was Thot-Hermes the first. They are thus identified
both with the planet and the god (Siva), who are, in their turn,
shown the prototypes of Saturn, who is the same as Bel, Baal,
Siva, and Jehovah Sabbaoth, The angel of whose face is MIKAEL
(
"who is as God").
He is the patron, and guardian Angel of the Jews, as Daniel tells
us (v. 21); and, before the Kumaras were degraded, by those who
were ignorant of their very name, into demons and fallen angels,
the Greek Ophites, the occultly inclined predecessors and precursors
of the Roman Catholic Church after its secession and separation
from the primitive Greek Church, had identified Michael with their
Ophiomorphos, the rebellious and opposing spirit.
This means nothing more than the reverse aspect (symbolically)
of Ophis -- divine Wisdom or Christos. In the Talmud,
Mikael (Michael) is "Prince of Water"
and the chief of the seven Spirits, for the same reason that
his prototype (among many others) Sanat-Sujata,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
* Siva-Rudra is the Destroyer, as Vishnu is the preserver; and
both are the regenerators of spiritual as well as of physical
nature. To live as a plant, the seed must die. To live
as a conscious entity in the Eternity, the passions and senses
of man must first DIE before his body does. "To live is to
die and to die is to live," has been too little understood
in the West. Siva, the destroyer, is the creator
and the Saviour of Spiritual man, as he is the good gardener
of nature. He weeds out the plants, human and cosmic, and kills
the passions of the physical, to call to life the perceptions
of the spiritual, man.
[[Vol. 1, Page]] 460 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
-- the chief of the Kumaras -- is called Ambhamsi, "Waters,"
-- according to the commentary on Vishnu Purana. Why?
Because the "Waters" is another name of the "Great
Deep," the primordial Waters of space or Chaos,
and also means "Mother," Amba, meaning
Aditi and Akasa, the Celestial Virgin-Mother of the visible universe.
Furthermore, the "Waters of the flood" are also called
"the GREAT DRAGON,"
or Ophis, Ophio-Morphos.
The Rudras will be noticed in their Septenary character of "Fire-Spirits"
in the "Symbolism" attached to the Stanzas in Book II.
There we shall also consider the Cross (3 + 4) under its primeval
and later forms, and shall use for purposes of comparison the
Pythagorean numbers side by side with Hebrew Metrology. The immense
importance of the number seven will thus become evident,
as the root number of nature. We shall examine it from the standpoints
of the Vedas and the Chaldean Scriptures, as it existed in Egypt
thousands of years B.C., and as treated in the Gnostic
records; we shall show how its importance as a basic number has
gained recognition in physical Science; and we shall endeavour
to prove that the importance attached to the number seven
throughout all antiquity was due to no fanciful imaginings of
uneducated priests, but to a profound knowledge of natural law.
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