Inner and Outer Evolution

GA 91 — 8 September 1904, Berlin

14. After the so-called Flood of Sin

The Atlanteans were led by initiates. They were not yet human initiates, having only powers available to man, but bringing with them certain higher faculties which man does not develop until the fifth root race, so that these sons of the gods, Arhats, could initiate them - and withdraw more and more. But our race, too, was guided by a Manu who still /gap in transcript] and aimed [gap in transcript].

The ursemitic race - first with combining thinking - has dwelt, fifteen to sixteen million years ago, in what is now Ireland. From the race has chosen the most capable of the Manu [gap in the transcript] and morally best and has moved to the desert Gobi. With the Atlanteans one could not speak of actual religion and religious worship. Atlanteans have mastered life force, but it was not thoughtfully conscious, but more like a suggestion that Atlantean kings exercised on their peoples; not a dream state, but also not such a bright consciousness as today. Sensed that power came from the divine, but did not worship it.

The Manu aimed to bring everything they could achieve into a religious character. Manu was supported by number of lesser messengers of gods. The Atlantean could follow only what he had in front of him. The god he felt. The adept king also met him visibly; he could not understand everything, but he saw him. To this they were to be urged, that they worshipped not only the visible, but also the invisible. "You have to believe also in what you do not see; the highest is an invisible. And a whole monumental teaching plans over those beginnings of the fifth race. Worship that of which you cannot form a picture, for as soon as you form a picture, the unseen escapes you."

And an echo of this primal teaching of Manu is in the Mosaic Law. Everything that filled the new race took on such a religious tinge. The orbits of the heavenly bodies were explained, how the divine laws and powers ruled in them. [As divine wisdom was taught] what we know today as Theosophy.

To the chosen race Manu communicated this. During last atJantic times the people, without thinking of divine, had already known science and arts; first the fire. Now the Manu let say to his people: "You can see indeed what you need for the immediate life now. But you should voluntarily relate what you know and know to the divine; connect it with the divine." Then Manu set up something that could relate these initially worldly pursuits to the divine. The fire was to be lit on the altar as a connecting link on certain days, and thus the sacrifice was born.

So Manu gave a religious character to human activity, human morality was given in the form of commandments. The ursemitic race was endowed by Manu with the religious character. Earlier there was no such thing; instinctively the Atlantean felt the divine; consciously he did not grasp it. In a worldly way Atlanteans have known art and science. Now the Manu has broken with the policy of Atlantean adepts. Not suggestive anymore. Manu put everything freely. They could believe, but also refrain. Consequence of it was that only a part followed the Manu voluntarily, the others devoted themselves to the service of the own benefit. With the small part he withdrew even more inside; with these he undertook the consolidation of his work. The small group are the selfless and pious living within our race; the others, who had not quite followed, serve self-interest.

When Manu had prompted several hundred years of primal religious wisdom and had initiated some, they moved, as it were, as colonizers to the peoples who had remained behind. To them they grafted what they had learned, and depending on it these teachings took other colorings. From this the new sub-races arose.

First: The first train, led by the Rishis, went to India, and there arose the first subrace; it was the most spiritual, for it was closest to the source. Earlier the people had guessed more, now the thought grasped its own origin and what it was in the stars [gap in the transcript]. With this subrace, the Indian, had remained mainly wisdom.

Secondly, in Central Asia a more practical activity arose. Man had to conquer nature first. In the work the task was given, and in standing his man. Agriculture was cultivated and directly human activity - strength. The personal is what is enclosed between death and life. Indians did not need to work so hard, and therefore they could devote more to the care of the spiritual. In Persians: Here also developed the race that did not directly believe in reincarnation. Personally, man should be such that he could be relied upon in all cases of life. Truth to speak one taught the boys. Fire sacrifices were especially in place here. Zarathustra lived about fourteen million years ago. There were seven Zarathustras. History knows only of the last; it was the same one in ever new reincarnations.

Third, colonists moved to the Near East, Egypt but also to Greece and Italy. The legend has preserved souvenirs of the initiates who came over from Asia. Orpheus who came to Greece, Theseus, Kadmos; Moses initiated in Egypt. These are phenomena that took place at about the same time. Human initiates, but worshipped like demigods.

Fourth, a fourth subrace came about in a similar way at the beginning of our reckoning, Since Homer Latin-Greek race, which later adopted Christianity, and here the Christian Church was founded.