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    "num": 36,
    "slug": "86-xxiii-the-upanishads-in-gnostic-literature-563",
    "title": "XXIII. THE UPANISHADS IN GNOSTIC LITERATURE ... 563",
    "of": 49,
    "words": 5071,
    "text": "## XXIII. THE UPANISHADS IN GNOSTIC LITERATURE ... 563\n\n\n###### The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky -- Vol. 2\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 563 THE SEVEN THUNDERS.\n\n#### § XXIII.\n\n##### THE UPANISHADS IN GNOSTIC LITERATURE.\n\nWe are reminded in King's \"Gnostics\" that the Greek\nlanguage has but one word for *vowel *and voice; and this\nhas led the uninitiated to many erroneous interpretations. On\nthe simple knowledge, however, of that well-known fact a comparison\nmay be attempted, and a flood of light thrown upon several mystic\nmeanings. Thus the words, so often used in the Upanishads and\nthe Puranas, \"Sound\" and \"Speech,\" may be\ncollated with the Gnostic \"Vowels\" and the \"Voices\"\nof the Thunders and Angels in \"Revelation.\" The same\nwill be found in *Pistis Sophia, *and other ancient Fragments\nand MSS. This was remarked even by the matter-of-fact author of\n\"The Gnostics and their Remains.\"\n\nThrough Hippolytus, an early Church Father, we learn what Marcus\n-- a Pythagorean rather than a Christian Gnostic, and a Kabalist\nmost certainly -- had received in mystic revelation. It is said\nthat \"Marcus had it revealed unto him that 'the *seven\nheavens'* *. . . . sounded each one vowel, which, all combined\ntogether, formed a complete doxology\"; in clearer words:\n\"the *Sound *whereof being carried down (from these\nseven heavens) to earth, became the creator and parent of all\nthings that be on earth.\" (See \"Hippolytus,\" vi.,\n48, and King's *Gnostics,* p. 200.) Translated from the\nOccult phraseology into still plainer language this would read:\n\"The Sevenfold LOGOS having differentiated into seven *Logoi,\n*or creative potencies (vowels) these (the second logos, or\n\"Sound\") created all on Earth.\n\nAssuredly one who is acquainted with Gnostic literature can hardly\nhelp seeing in St. John's *Apocalypse, *a work of the same\nschool of thought. For we find John saying (chap. x. 3, 4), \"Seven\nthunders uttered their voices . . . and I was about to write .\n. . (but) I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, 'Seal up\nthose things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them\nnot.' \" The same injunction is given to Marcus, the same\nto all other *semi *and* full* Initiates. Yet the\nsameness of equivalent expressions used, and of the underlying\nideas, always betrays a portion of the mysteries. We must always\nseek for more than one meaning in every mystery allegorically\nrevealed, especially in those in which the number seven and its\nmultiplication seven by seven, or forty-nine, appear. Now when\nthe Rabbi Jesus is requested (in *Pistis*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n*The \"Heavens\" are identical with \"Angels,\"\nas already stated.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 564 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\n*Sophia*)* *by his disciples to reveal to them,\n\"the mysteries of the Light of thy (*his*)* Father\"\n*(*i.e.*, of the higher SELF enlightened by Initiation\nand Divine knowledge), Jesus answers: \"Do ye seek after these\nmysteries? No mystery is more excellent than they which shall\nbring your souls unto the Light of Lights, unto the place of Truth\nand Goodness, unto the place where there is neither male nor female,\nneither form in that place but Light, everlasting, not to be uttered.\nNothing therefore is more excellent than the mysteries which ye\nseek after, *saving* *only *THE MYSTERY *of the\nseven vowels and their *FORTY AND NINE POWERS, and their numbers\nthereof; and no name is more excellent *than* *all these\nvowels.\" *\"The Seven Fathers and the Forty-nine\nSons blaze in DARKNESS, but they are the LIFE and LIGHT and the\ncontinuation thereof through the Great Age\" -- says the Commentary\nspeaking of the \"Fires.\"\n\nNow it becomes evident that, in every esoteric interpretation\nof exoteric beliefs expressed in allegorical forms, there was\nthe same underlying idea -- the basic number seven, the compound\nof *three and* *four, *preceded by the divine THREE\n( ) making the perfect number\nten.\n\nAlso, these numbers applied equally to divisions of time, to cosmography\nmetaphysical and physical, as well as to man and everything else\nin visible nature. Thus these *Seven *vowels with their\n*forty-nine *powers are identical with the *three *and\nthe *Seven *Fires of the Hindus and their forty-nine fires;\nidentical with the numerical mysteries of the Persian Simorgh;\nidentical with those of the Jewish Kabalists. The latter, dwarfing\nthe numbers (their mode of *blinds*)*, *made the\nduration of each successive *renewal *(what we call in\nesoteric parlance *Round*)* *of the seven renewals\nof the globe only of 7,000 years, instead of, as is more likely,\n7,000,000,000, and assigned to the total duration of the universe\n49,000 years only. (Compare § \"Chronology of the Brahmins.\")\n\nNow, the Secret Doctrine furnishes a key which reveals to us on\nindisputable grounds of comparative analogy that *Garuda, *the\nallegorical and monstrous half-man and half-bird, -- the* Vahan\n*or vehicle on which Vishnu (who is Kala, \"time\")\nis shown to ride -- is the origin of all other such allegories.\nHe is the Indian *phoenix,* the emblem of cyclic and periodical\ntime, the \"man-lion\" *Singha, *of whose representations\nthe so-called \"gnostic gems\" are so full.* \"Over\nthe seven rays of the lion's crown, and corresponding to their\npoints, stand, in many cases, the seven vowels of the Greek alphabet\n[Gk char], testifying to the Seven Heavens.\" This is the\n*Solar *lion and the emblem of the Solar cycle, as\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n*As confessed by King, the great authority on Gnostic antiquities,\nthese gnostic gems are not the work of the Gnostics, but belong\nto *pre-christian *periods, and are the work of *magicians\n*(p. 241).\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 565 WHEN TIME BE NO LONGER.\n\nGaruda* is that of the great cycle, the *\"Maha-Kalpa\"\n*co-eternal with Vishnu, and also, of course, the emblem of\nthe Sun, and Solar cycle. This is shown by the details of the\nallegory. At his birth, Garuda is mistaken for *Agni, *the\nGod of Fire, on account of his (Garuda's) *\"dazzling splendour,\"*\nand called thereupon *Gaganeswara, *\"lord of the sky.\"\nAgain, his being represented as Osiris, and by many heads of allegorical\nmonsters on the *Abraxas *(gnostic) gems, with the head\nand beak of an eagle or a hawk (solar birds), denotes Garuda's\nsolar and cyclic character. His Son is *Jatabu, *the cycle\nof 60,000 years. As well remarked by C. W. King: -- \"Whatever\nthe primary meaning (of the gem with the solar lion and vowels)\nit was probably imported in its present shape from **I**NDIA,\n*that* *true fountain head of gnostic iconography\"\n*(*Gnostics, *p. 218).\n\nThe mysteries of the seven gnostic vowels, uttered by the thunders\nof St. John, can be unriddled only by the primeval and original\nOccultism of Aryavarta, brought into India by the primeval Brahmins,\nwho had been *initiated in Central Asia. *And this is the\nOccultism we study and try to explain, as much as is possible\nin these pages. Our doctrine of seven Races and Seven Rounds of\nlife and evolution around our terrestrial chain of spheres, may\nbe found even in *Revelation.**** *When the seven\n\"thunders,\" or \"sounds,\" or \"vowels\"\n-- one meaning out of the seven for each such vowel relating directly\nto our own Earth and its seven Root-Races in each Round -- \"had\nuttered their voices\" -- but forbidden the Seer to write\nthem, and made him \"seal up those things\" -- what did\nthe Angel \"standing upon the sea and upon the earth\"\ndo? He lifted his hand to heaven \"and sware by him that liveth\nfor ever and ever . . . . that there *should be time no longer.\"\n*\"But in the days of the voice of the *seventh*\n*angel *when he shall begin to sound, the Mystery of God\n(of the Cycle) should be finished\" (x. 7), which means, in\ntheosophic phraseology, that when the Seventh Round is completed,\nthen *Time* will cease. \"There shall be time no longer\"\nvery naturally, since *pralaya *shall set in and there\nwill remain no one on earth to keep a division of time, during\nthat periodical dissolution and arrest of conscious life.\n\nDr. Kenealy and others believed this doctrine of the Rabbins (their\ncalculations of cyclic seven and forty-nine) to have been brought\nby\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* The lack of intuition in Orientalists and *antiquarians *past\nand present, is remarkable. Thus, Wilson, the translator of *Vishnu\nPurana,* declares in his *Preface *that in the *Garuda\nPurana* he found \"no account of the birth of Garuda.\"\nConsidering that an account of \"Creation\" in general\nis given therein, and that Garuda is co-eternal with Vishnu, the\n*Maha Kalpa, *or Great Life-CycIe, beginning with and ending\nwith the *manifesting* Vishnu, what other account of Garuda's\nbirth could be expected !\n\n*** Vide Revelation *xvii., verses 2 and 10; and *Leviticus\n*xxiii., verses 15 to 18; the first passage speaking of the\n\"Seven Kings,\" of whom *five* have gone; and\nthe second about the \"Seven Sabbaths,\" etc.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 566 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthem from Chaldea. This is more than likely. But the Babylonians,\nwho had all those cycles and taught them only at their great initiatory\nmysteries of astrological magic, got their wisdom and learning\nfrom India. It is not difficult, therefore, to recognize in them\nour own esoteric doctrine. In their secret computations, the Japanese\nhave the same figures in their cycles. As to the Brahmins, their\nPuranas and Upanishads are a good proof of it. The latter have\npassed entirely into Gnostic literature; and a Brahmin needs only\nto read *Pistis Sophia* to* recognize his forefathers'\nproperty, even to the phraseology and similes used. Compare: in\n*Pistis Sophia *the disciple says to Jesus: \"Rabbi,\nreveal unto us the Mysteries of the Light (*i.e.*, the*\n\"Fire *of Knowledge or Enlightenment\") . . . forasmuch\nas we have heard thee saying that *there is another baptism\nof smoke, *and another baptism of the Spirit of Holy Light,\"\n*i.e.*, the Spirit of FIRE. \"I baptize you with water,\nbut . . . . he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with\nfire,\" says John of Jesus (Matt. iii. 2); meaning this esoterically.\nThe real significance of this statement is very profound. It means\nthat he, John, a non-initiated ascetic, can impart to his disciples\nno greater wisdom than the mysteries connected with the plane\nof matter (water being a symbol of it). His *gnosis *was\nthat of exoteric and ritualistic dogma, of dead-letter orthodoxy;\n** while the wisdom which Jesus, an Initiate of the higher mysteries,\nwould reveal to them, was of a higher character, for it was the\n\"**F**IRE\" Wisdom of the true gnosis or\nthe *real spiritual *enlightment. One was **F**IRE,\nthe other the **S**MOKE. For Moses, the *fire*\non Mount Sinai, and the spiritual wisdom imparted; for the multitudes\nof the \"people\" below, for the profane, Mount Sinai\nin (*through*)* *smoke*, i.e.*, the exoteric\nhusks of orthodox or *sectarian ritualism.*\n\nNow, having the above in view, read the dialogue between the sages\nNarada and Davamata in the *Anugita, *the antiquity and\nimportance of which MS. (an episode from the Mahabharata) one\ncan learn in the \"Sacred Books of the East,\" edited\nby Prof. Max Muller.** Narada is discussing upon the breaths or\nthe \"life-winds,\" as they are called in\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n**Pistis Sophia *is an extremely important document, a\ngenuine *Evangel* of the Gnostics, ascribed at random to\nValentinus, but much more probably a pre-Christian work in its\noriginal. It was discovered in a Coptic MS. by Schwartze, in the\nBritish Museum, quite accidentally, and translated by him into\nLatin; after which text and (Latin) version were published by\nPetermann in the year 1853. In the text itself the authorship\nof this Book is ascribed to Philip the Apostle, whom Jesus bids\nto sit down and write the revelation. It is genuine and ought\nto be as canonical as any other gospel. Unfortunately it remains\nto this day untranslated.\n\n** In the Cycle of Initiation, which was very long, water represented\nthe first and lower steps toward purification, while trials connected\nwith *fire* came last. Water could regenerate the body\nof matter; FIRE alone, that of the *inner* Spiritual man.\n\n*** See* Introduction *by Kashinath Trimbak Telang, M.A.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 567 TRUTH BETWEEN TWO CONTRASTS.\n\nthe clumsy translations of such words as *Prana, Apana, *etc.,\nwhose full esoteric meaning and application to individual functions\ncan hardly be rendered in English. He says of this Science that\n\"it is the teaching of the Veda *that the fire verily\nis all the deities, *and knowledge of it arises among Brahmans,\nbeing accompanied by intelligence.\" By \"fire,\"\nsays the Commentator, he means the **S**ELF. By \"intelligence,\"\nthe Occultist says, Narada means neither \"discussion\"\nnor \"argumentation,\" as Aruna Misra believes, but \"intelligence\"\ntruly, or *the adaptation* *of the fire of Wisdom to\nExoteric Ritualism for the profane. *This is the chief concern\nof the Brahmans (who were the first to set the example to other\nnations who thus anthropomorphized and carnalized the grandest\nmetaphysical truths). Narada makes it plain and is made to say:\n\"The *smoke *of that fire, which is of excellent glory,\nappears in the shape of darkness\" (verily so!); \"its\nashes (are) passion; and goodness is that in connection with it\nin which the offering is thrown\": *i.e.*, that faculty\nin the disciple which apprehends the subtle truth (the flame)\nwhich escapes heavenward, while the objective sacrifice remains\nas a proof and *evidence of piety *only to the profane.\nFor what can Narada mean in teaching that \"those who understand\nthe sacrifice understand the Samana and the Vyana as the *principal\n*(offering)\"; and \"the Prana and Apana, but portions\nof the offering . . . and between them *is the fire *.\n. . . that is the excellent seat of the Udana as understood by\nBrahmanas. As to that which is distinct from these pairs, hear\nme speak about that. Day and night are a pair, between them is\nthe fire. . . That *which exists and that which does not exist\n*are a pair, between them is the fire, etc.,\" and after\nevery such contrast Narada adds \"That is the excellent seat\nof the Udana as understood by Brahmanas.\"\n\nNow many people do not know the full meaning of such terms as\nSamana and Vyana, Prana and Apana, explained as being \"life-winds\"\n(we say \"principles and their respective faculties and senses\"),\nbeing offered up to Udana, the *soi-disant *principal \"life\nwind,\" (?) said to act at all the joints. Therefore the reader,\nwho is ignorant that the word \"fire\" means in these\nallegories both the \"Self\" and the higher divine knowledge,\nwill understand nothing in this; and will therefore entirely miss\nthe point of our argument, as its translators and even its editor\nthe great Oxford Sanskritist, Max Muller, has missed the true\nmeaning of Narada's words. Exoterically, all this enumeration\nof \"life winds\" means, of course, *approximately,\n*that which is surmised in the foot-notes; namely, \"The\nsense appears to be this . . . . worldly life is due to the operations\nof the life-winds which are attached to the** S**ELF,\nand lead to its manifestations as individual souls (?). Of these\nthe Samana and Vyana are controlled and held under check by\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 568 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nthe Prana and Apana. . . . The latter two are held in check and\ncontrolled by the Udana, which thus controls all. And the control\nof this, which is the control of all five . . . . leads to the\nSupreme Self\" (p. 259, *Anugita, \"Sacred Books of\nthe East,\" *Vol. VIII.)\n\nThe above is given as an explanation of the text, which records\nthe words of the Brahmana, who narrates how he reached the ultimate\nWisdom of Yogism, and had reached all knowledge in this wise.\nSaying that he had \"perceived by means of the **S**ELF\nthe seat abiding in the **S**ELF,\" where dwells\nthe Brahman free from all; and explaining that that indestructible\nprinciple was entirely *beyond the perception of senses*\n(*i.e., *of the five \"life-winds\"), he adds that\n\"in the midst of an these (life-winds) which move about in\nthe body and swallow up one another, blazes the Vaisvanara *fire\nsevenfold.\" *This \"Fire,\" according to Nilakantha's\nCommentary, is identical with the \"I,\" the SELF, which\nis the goal of the ascetic (Vaisvanara being a word often used\nfor the *Self*)*. *Then the Brahmana goes on to\nenumerate that which is meant by the word \"Sevenfold,\"\nand says, \"The nose (or smell), the tongue (taste), the eye,\nand the skin, and the ear as the fifth, the mind, and the understanding,\nthese are the seven tongues of the blaze of Vaisvanara,*. . .\n. . those are the seven (kinds of) fuel for me,**. . . . . these\nare the *seven* *great officiating priests.\"*\n\nThese seven priests are accepted by Arjuna Misra in the sense\nof meaning \"the soul distinguished as so many (souls, or\nprinciples) with reference to these several powers\"; and,\nfinally, the translator seems to accept the explanation, and reluctantly\nadmits that \"they may mean\" this; though he himself\ntakes the sense to mean \"the powers of hearing, etc. (the\nphysical senses, in short) which are presided over by the several\ndeities.\" (*Vide loc. cit., *p. 259, f.n. 6.)\n\nBut whatever it may mean, whether in scientific or orthodox interpretations,\nthis passage on page 259 explains Narada's statements on page\n276, and shows them referring to exoteric and esoteric methods\nand contrasting them. Thus the Samana and the Vyana, though subject\nto the Prana and the Apana, and all the four to Udana* *in\nthe matter of acquiring the Pranayama (of the Hatha-Yogi, chiefly,\nor the \"lower\" form of the Yoga) are yet referred to\nas the principal offering, for, as rightly argued by the commentator,\ntheir \"operations are more practically important for vitality\";\n*i.e., *they are the grossest, and are offered in the sacrifice,\nto disappear, so to speak, in the quality of darkness of that\nfire or its SMOKE (mere exoteric ritualistic form). But\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n*In the astronomical and cosmical key, Vaisvanara is Agni, son\nof the Sun, or Viswanaras, but in the psycho-metaphysical symbolism\nit is the **S**ELF, in the sense of non-separateness,*\ni.e.*, both divine and human.\n\n**Here the speaker personifies the said divine **S**ELF.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 569 THE DIVINE SELF'S WISDOM.\n\nPrana and Apana, though shown as subordinate (because less gross\nor more purified), have the FIRE between them: the Self and the\nsecret knowledge possessed by that Self. So for the good and evil,\nand for \"that which exists and that which does not exist\";\nall these \"pairs\"* have fire between them, *i.e.*,\nesoteric knowledge, the Wisdom of the divine SELF. Let those who\nare satisfied with the *Smoke *of the **F**IRE\nremain wherein they are, that is to say within the Egyptian darkness\nof theological fictions and dead-letter interpretations.\n\nThe above is written only for the Western students of Occultism\nand Theosophy. The writer presumes to explain these things neither\nto the Hindus, who have their own Gurus; nor to the Orientalists,\nwho think they know more than all the Gurus and Rishis, past and\npresent, put together. These rather lengthy quotations and examples\ncited are necessary, if even to point out to the student the works\nhe has to study so as to derive benefit and learning from comparison.\nLet him read *Pistis Sophia *in the light of the Bhagavatgita,\nthe Anugita and others; and then the statement made by Jesus in\nthe Gnostic Gospel will become clear, and the dead letter blinds\ndisappear at once. Read this and compare with the explanation\nfrom the Hindu scriptures just given. . . . \"And no name\nis more excellent than all these (seven) vowels. A name wherein\nbe contained all names, all Lights, and all (the fortynine) powers,\nknowing it, if a man quits this body of matter** no *Smoke*\n(*i.e.*, no theological delusion),*** no darkness, nor\nRuler of the Sphere (no *personal *genius or planetary\nspirit called God), or of Fate (*karma*)* *shall\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n* Compare with these \"pairs of opposites,\" in the *Anugita*,\nthe \"pairs\" of AEons, in the elaborate system of Valentinus,\nthe most learned and profound master of Gnosis. As the \"pairs\nof opposites,\" male and female, are all derived from *Akasa*\n(undeveloped and developed, differentiated and undifferentiated,\nor **S**ELF or Prajapati), so are the Valentinian\n\"pairs\" of male and female AEons shown to emanate from\nBythos, the pre-existing *eternal* Depth, and in their\nsecondary emanation from Ampsiu-Ouraan (or sempiternal Depth and\nSilence), the second Logos. In the esoteric emanation there are\nseven chief \"pairs of opposites\"; and so also in the\nValentinian system there were fourteen, or twice seven. Epiphanius,\ncopying incorrectly, \"copied one pair twice over,\" Mr.\nC. W. King thinks, \"and thus adds one pair to the proper\nfifteen.\" (\"The Gnostics,\" etc., pp. 263-4.) Here\nKing falls into the opposite error: the pairs of AEons are not\n15 (a blind) but 14, as the *first *AEon is *that*\nfrom which others emanate, Depth and Silence being the first and\nonly emanation from Bythos. As Hippolytus shows: \"The AEons\nof Valentinus are confessedly the *Six Radicals *of Simon\n(Magus),\" with the *seventh*, Fire, at their head.\nAnd these are: Mind, Intelligence, Voice, Name, Reason and Thought\nsubordinate to FIRE, the higher self, or precisely the \"Seven\nWinds\" or the \"Seven Priests\" of Anugita.\n\n** Not necessarily at death only, but during *Samadhi *or\nmystic trance.\n\n*** All the words and sentences between parenthetical marks, are\nthe writer's. This is translated directly from the Latin MS. of\nthe British Museum. King's translation in the *Gnostics *conforms\ntoo much to the gnosticism as explained by the Church-Fathers.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 570 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nbe able to hold back the soul that knoweth that name. . . If he\nshall utter that (Name) unto the fire, the darkness shall flee\naway. . . And if he shall utter that name unto . . . all their\nPowers, nay, even unto Barbelo,* *the Invisible God, *and\nthe triple-powered Gods, so soon as he shall have uttered that\nname in those places, they shall all be shaken and thrown one\nupon the other, so that they shall be ready to melt, perish and\ndisappear, and shall cry aloud, 'O, Light of all Lights that art\nin the Boundless Light, remember us also and purify us!' \"\n\nIt is easy to see who this Light and Name are: the light of Initiation\nand the name of the \"Fire-Self,\" which is no name, no\naction, but a Spiritual, ever-living Power, higher even than the\n\"Invisible God,\" as this Power is **I**TSELF.\n\nBut if the able and learned author of the \"Gnostics and their\nRemains\" has not sufficiently allowed for the Spirit of allegory\nand mysticism in the fragments translated and quoted by him, in\nthe above named work, from *Pistis Sophia -- *other Orientalists\nhave done far worse. Having neither his intuitional perception\nof the Indian origin of the Gnostic Wisdom still more than of\ntheir \"gems,\" most of them, beginning with Wilson and\nending with the dogmatic Weber, have made most extraordinary blunders\nwith regard to almost every symbol. Sir M. Monier Williams and\nothers show a very decided contempt for the \"Esoteric Buddhists\"\nas theosophists are now called; yet no Student of Occult philosophy\nhas ever mistaken a cycle for a living personage and *vice\nversa, *as was very often the case with our learned Orientalists.\nAn instance or two may illustrate the statement more graphically.\nLet us choose the best known.\n\nIn the Ramayana, Garuda is called \"the maternal uncle of\nSagara's 60,000 sons\"; and Ansumat, Sagara's grandson, \"the\nnephew of the 60,000 uncles\" reduced to ashes by the look\nof Kapila, \"the Purushottama\" (or infinite Spirit),\nwho caused Sagara's horse for the Aswamedha sacrifice to disappear.\nAgain, Garuda's son** -- Garuda being himself the* Maha-Kalpa\n*or great cycle -- Jatayu, the king of the feathered tribe,\nwhen on the point of being slain by Ravana who carries off Sita\n-- says, speaking of himself:\n\n\"It is 60,000 years O King, that I am born,\" after which\n*turning his* *back on the Sun -- *he dies.\n\nJatayu is, of course, the cycle of 60,000 years within the great\ncycle of GARUDA; hence he is represented as his son, or nephew,\n*ad libitum,*\n\n####### [[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------\n\n*Barbelo is one of the three \"Invisible Gods,\" and,\nas C. W. King believes, includes \"the Divine Mother of the\nSaviour,\" or rather Sophia Achamoth (*Vide *cap. 359).\n\n** In other *Puranas* Jatayu is the son of Aruna, Garuda's\nbrother, both the Sons of Kasyapa. But all this is external allegory.\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 571 THE ANTIQUITY OF THE KAPILAS.\n\nsince the whole meaning rests in his being placed on the line\nof Garuda's descendants. Then, again, there is Diti -- the Mother\nof the Maruts -- whose descendants and progeny belonged to the\nposterity of Hiranyaksha, \"whose number was 77 crores (or\n770 millions) of men.\" (See *Padma Purana.*)* *All\nsuch narratives are pronounced *meaningless fictions* and\nabsurdities. But -- Truth is the daughter of Time, verily; and\ntime will show.\n\nMeanwhile, what could be easier than an attempt, at least, to\nverify Puranic chronology? There are many Kapilas; but the Kapila\nwho slew King Sagara's progeny -- 60,000 men strong -- was undeniably\nKapila, the founder of the Sankhya philosophy, since it is so\nstated in the Puranas; although one of them flatly denies the\nimputation without explaining its esoteric meaning. It is the\nBhagavata Purana (IX. viii., 12 and 13), which says that \"the\nreport that the sons of the King were reduced to ashes *by\nthe mere glance of the sage* is not true.\" \"For,\"\nas it argues, \"how can the quality of darkness, the product\nof anger, exist in a sage whose goodness was the essence that\npurified the world -- the earth's dust, as it were, attributed\nto Heavens! How should mental perturbation distract that sage,\nidentified with the Supreme Spirit, and who has steered here (on\nearth) that solid vessel of the Sankhya (philosophy), with the\nhelp of which he who desires to obtain liberation crosses the\ndreaded ocean of existence, that path to death?\"\n\nThe Purana is in duty bound to speak as it does. It has a dogma\nto promulgate and a policy to carry out -- that of great secrecy\nwith regard to mystical *divine* truths divulged for countless\nages only at initiation. It is not in the Puranas, therefore,\nthat we have to look for an explanation of the mystery connected\nwith various transcendental states of being. That the story is\nan allegory is seen upon its very face: the 60,000* Sons, *brutal,\nvicious, and impious, are the personification of the *human\npassions *that a \"mere glance of the sage\" -- the\nSELF who represents the highest state of purity that can be reached\non earthreduces to ashes. But it has also other significations\n-- cyclic and chronological meanings, -- a method of marking the\nperiods when certain sages flourished, found also in other Puranas.\n\nNow it is as well ascertained as any tradition can be, that it\nwas at Hardwar (or *Gangadwara, *the \"door or gate\nof the Ganges\") at the foot of the Himalayas, that Kapila\nsat in meditation for a number of years. Not far from the Sewalik\nrange, the \"pass of Hardwar\" is called to this day \"Kapila's\nPass\"; and the place, \"Kapilasthen,\" by the ascetics.\nIt is there that *Ganga *(Ganges) emerging from its mountainous\ngorge, begins its course over the sultry plains of India. And\nit is as clearly ascertained by geological survey that the tradition\nwhich claims that the\n\n####### [[Vol. 2, Page]] 572 THE SECRET DOCTRINE.\n\nocean ages ago washed the base of the Himalayas -- is not entirely\nwithout foundation, for there are traces left of this.\n\nThe Sankhya philosophy may have been *brought down *and\ntaught by the first, and written out by the *last *Kapila.\n\nNow* Sagara *is the name of the Ocean, and even of the\nBay of Bengal, at the mouth of the Ganges, to this day in India\n(*Vide* Wilson's Vishnu Purana, Vol. III. p. 309). Have\ngeologists ever calculated the number of millenniums it has taken\nthe sea to recede to where it is now, from Hardwar, 1,024 feet\nabove the level of the sea at present? If they did, those Orientalists\nwho show Kapila flourishing from the 1st to the 9th cent. A.D.,\nmight change their opinions, if only for one of two very good\nreasons: the true number of years elapsed since Kapila's day is\nin the Puranas unmistakably, though the translators fail to see\nit. And secondly -- the Kapila of the Satya, and the Kapila of\nthe Kali-Yugas *may be one* *and the same *INDIVIDUALITY,*\nwithout being the same *PERSONALITY.\n\nKapila, besides being the name of a personage, of the once living\nSage and the author of Sankhya philosophy, is also the generic\nname of the Kumaras, the celestial ascetics and virgins; therefore\nthe very fact of Bhagavata Purana calling *that *Kapila\n-- which it showed just before as a* portion of Vishnu -- *the\nauthor of Sankhya philosophy, ought to have warned the reader\nof a *blind* containing an esoteric meaning. Whether the\nSon of Vitatha, as Harivansa shows him to be, or of anyone else,\nthe author of Sankhya cannot be the same as the Sage of the SatyaYuga\n-- at the very beginning of the Manvantara, when Vishnu is shown\n*in the form of Kapila, \"imparting to all creatures true\nWisdom\"; *for this relates to that primordial period\nwhen \"the Sons of God\" taught to the just created men\nthe arts and sciences, which have been cultivated and preserved\nsince then in the sanctuaries by the Initiates. There are several\nwell-known Kapilas in the Puranas. First the primeval sage, then\nKapila, one of the three \"Secret\" Kumaras; and Kapila,\nson of Kasyapa and Kadru -- the \"many-headed Serpent,\"\n(See *Vayu Purana* placing him on the list of the forty\nrenowned sons of Kasyapa), besides Kapila, the great sage and\nphilosopher of the Kali Yuga. Being an Initiate, \"a Serpent\nof Wisdom,\" a Naga, the latter was purposely blended with\nthe Kapilas of the former ages.\n\nNext Section\n\nContents",
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