HPB-SD(ed.1) v.1 ch.Proem: Difference between revisions

that absolute Wisdom which transcends the ideas of Time and Space. Mind, as we know it, is resolvable into states of consciousness, of varying duration, intensity, complexity, etc. — ah, in the ultimate, resting on sensation, which is again Maya. Sensation, again, necessarily postulates limitation. The personal God of orthodox Theism perceives, thinks, and is affected by emotion ; he repents and feels “ fierce anger." But the notion of such mental states clearly involves the unthinkable postulate of the externality of the exciting stimuli, to say nothing of the impossibility of ascribing changelessness to a Being whose emotions fluctuate with events in the worlds he presides over. The conceptions of a Personal God as changeless and infinite are thus unpsychological and, what is worse, unphilosophical.

<nowiki>*</nowiki> Plato proves himself an Initiate, when saying in Cratylus that ''θεὸς'' is derived from the verb ''θέειν'', “ to move," “ to run," as the first astronomers who observed the motions of the heavenly bodies called the planets ''θεοί'', the gods. (See Book II., “ Symbolism of the Cross and Circle.") Later, the word produced another term, ''ἀλήθεια'' — “ the breath of God."

<nowiki>*</nowiki> Nominalists, arguing with Berkeley that “ it is impossible ... to form the abstract idea of motion distinct from the body moving " (“ ''Prin. of Human Knowledge," Introd., par.'' 10), may put the question, “ What is that body, the producer of that motion? Is it a substance? Then you are believers in a Personal God? ” etc., etc. This will be answered farther on, in the Addendum to this Book ; meanwhile, we claim our rights of Conceptionalists as against Roscelini’s materialistic views of Realism and Nominalism. “ Has science," says one of its ablest advocates, Edward Clodd, “ revealed anything that weakens or opposes itself to the ancient words in which the Essence of all religion, past, present, and to come, is given ; to do justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly before thy God ? " Provided we connote by the word God, ''not the crude anthropomorphism which is still the backbone of our current theology, but the symbolic conception of that which is Life and Motion of the Universe,'' to know which in physical order is to know time past, present, and to come, in the existence of successions of phenomena ; to know which, in the moral, is to know what has been, is, and will be, within human consciousness. (''See'' “ ''Science and the Emotions''." ''A Discourse delivered at South Place Chapel, Finsbury, London, Dec.'' 27th, 1885.)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> See that suggestive work, “ The Source of Measures," where the author explains the real meaning of the word “ sacr’," from which “ sacred," “ sacrament," are derived, which have now become synonyms of “ holiness," though purely phallic!

<nowiki>*</nowiki> We are told by the Western mathematicians and some American Kabalists, that in the Kabala also “ the value of the Jehovah name is that of the diameter of a circle." Add to this the fact that Jehovah is the third Sephiroth, ''Binah,'' a feminine word, and you have the key to the mystery. By certain Kabalistic transformations this name, ''androgynous'' in the first chapters of Genesis, becomes in its transformations entirely masculine, Cainite and phallic. The fact of choosing a deity among the pagan gods and making of it a special national God, to call upon it as the “ One living God," the “ God of Gods," and then proclaim this worship Monotheistic, does not change it into the one Principle whose “ Unity admits not of multiplication, change, or form," especially in the case of a priapic deity, as Jehovah now demonstrated to be.

<nowiki>*</nowiki> See “ Vedanta Sara," by Major G. A. Jacob ; as also “ The Aphorisms of S’ândilya," translated by Cowell, p. 42.

† Nevertheless, prejudiced and rather fanatical Christian Orientalists would like to prove this pure Atheism. For proof of this, see about Major Jacob’s “ Vedanta Sara." Yet, the whole Antiquity echoes this Vedantic thought: —

Immortali svo summa cum pace fruatur."}}

<nowiki>*</nowiki> The very names of the two chief deities, Brahmâ and Vishnu, ought to have long ago suggested their esoteric meanings. For the root of one, Brahmam, or Brahm, is derived by some from the word Brih, “ to grow " or “ to expand " (see ''Calcutta Review, ''vol. lxvi., p. 14) ; and of the other, Vishnu, from the root Vis, “ to pervade," to enter in the nature of the essence; Brahmâ-Vishnu being this infinite space, of which the gods, the Rishis, the Manus, and all in this universe are simply the potencies, Vibhutayah.

† Occultism is indeed in the air at the close of this our century. Among many other works recently published, we would recommend one especially to students of theoretical Occultism who would not venture beyond the realm of our special human plane. It is called “ New Aspects of Life and Religion," by Henry Pratt, M.D. It is full of esoteric dogmas and philosophy, the latter rather limited, in the concluding chapters, by what seems to be a spirit of conditioned positivism. Nevertheless, what is said of Space as “ the Unknown First Cause," merits quotation. “ This unknown something, thus recognised as, and identified with, the primary embodiment of Simple Unity, is invisible and impalpable " — (''abstract'' space, granted) ; “ and because invisible and impalpable, therefore incognisable. And this incognisability has led to the error of supposing it to be a simple void, a mere receptive capacity. But, even viewed as an absolute void, space must be admitted to be either Self-existent, infinite, and eternal, or to have had a first cause outside, behind, and beyond itself.

“ And yet could such a cause be found and defined, this would only lead to the transferring thereto of the attributes otherwise accruing to space, and thus merely throw the difficulty of origination a step farther back, without gaining additional light as to primary causation." (p. 5.)

This is precisely what has been done by the believers in an anthropomorphic Creator, an extracosmic, instead of an intracosmic God. Many — most of Mr. Pratt’s subjects, we may say — are old Kabalistic ideas and theories which he presents in quite a new garb : “ New Aspects " of the Occult in Nature, indeed. Space, however, viewed as a “ Substantial Unity " — the “ living Source of Life " — is as the “ Un-

known Causeless Cause," is the oldest dogma in Occultism, millenniums earlier than the ''Pater-Æther'' of the Greeks and Latins. So are the “ Force and Matter, as Potencies of Space, inseparable, and the Unknown revealers of the Unknown." They are all found in Aryan philosophy personified by Visvakarman, Indra, Vishnu, etc., etc. Still they are expressed very philosophically, and under many unusual aspects, in the work referred to.

<nowiki>*</nowiki> In contradistinction to the manifested universe of matter, the term ''Mulaprakriti'' (from ''Mula'', “ the root," and ''prakriti'', “ nature "), or the unmanifested primordial matter — called by Western alchemists Adam’s Earth — is applied by the Vedantins to ''Parabrahmam.'' Matter is dual in religious metaphysics, and septenary in esoteric teachings, like everything else in the universe. As ''Mulaprakriti,'' it is undifferentiated and eternal ; as Vyakta, it becomes differentiated and conditioned, according to ''Svetasvatara Upanishad, I.'' 8, and ''Devi Bhagavata Purdna.'' The author of the Four Lectures on the Bhagavad Gita, says, in speaking of ''Mulaprakriti:'' “ From its (the Logos’) objective standpoint, ''Parabrahmam'' appears to it as ''Mulaprakriti.'' ... Of course this ''Mulaprakriti'' is material to it, as any material object is material to us. . . . ''Parabrahmam'' is an unconditioned and absolute reality, and ''Mulaprakriti'' is a sort of veil thrown over it." (''Theosophist'', Vol. VIII., p. 304.)

<nowiki>*</nowiki> Meaning “ parentless " — see farther on.

† Esoteric philosophy, regarding as Maya (or the illusion of ignorance) every finite thing, must necessarily view in the same light every intra-Cosmic planet and body, as being something organised, hence finite. The expression, therefore, “ it proceeds from without inwardly, etc." refers in the first portion of the sentence to the dawn of the Mahamanvantaric period, or the great re-evolution after one of the complete periodical dissolutions of every compound form in Nature (from planet to molecule) into its ultimate essence or element ; and in its second portion, to the partial or local manvantara, which may be a solar or even a planetary one.

‡ By “ centre," a centre of energy or a Cosmic focus is meant; when the so-called “ Creation," or formation of a planet, is accomplished by that force which is designated by the Occultists life and by Science “ energy," then the process takes place  

from within outwardly, every atom being said to contain in itself creative energy of the divine breath. Hence, whereas after an absolute pralaya, or when the preexisting material consists but of one Element, and breath “ is everywhere," the latter acts from without inwardly: after a minor pralaya, everything having remained in ''statu quo'' — in a refrigerated state, so to say, like the moon — at the first flutter of manvantara, the planet or planets begin their resurrection to life from within outwardly.

<nowiki>*</nowiki> It is curious to notice how, in the evolutionary cycles of ideas, ancient thought seems to be reflected in modern speculation. Had Mr. Herbert Spencer read and studied ancient Hindu philosophers when he wrote a certain passage in his “ First Principles " (p. 482), or is it an independent flash of inner perception that made him say half correctly, half incorrectly, “ motion as well as matter, being fixed in quantity (?), it would seem that the change in the distribution of Matter which Motion effects, coming to a limit in whichever direction it is carried (?), the indestructible Motion thereupon necessitates a reverse distribution. Apparently, the universally co-existent forces of attraction and repulsion which, as we have seen, necessitate rhythm in all minor changes throughout the Universe, also necessitate rhythm in the totality of its changes — produce now an immeasurable period during which the attracting forces predominating, cause universal concentration, and then an immeasurable period, during which the repulsive forces predominating, cause universal diffusion — alternate eras of Evolution and dissolution."

<nowiki>*</nowiki> Whatever the views of physical Science upon the subject, Occult Science has been teaching for ages that A’kâśa — of which Ether is the grossest form — the fifth universal Cosmic Principle (to which corresponds and from which proceeds human Manas) is, cosmically, a radiant, cool, diathermanous plastic matter, creative in its physical nature, correlative in its grossest aspects and portions, immutable in its higher principles. In the former condition it is called the Sub-Root ; and in conjunction with radiant heat, it recalls “ dead worlds to life." In its higher aspect it is the Soul of the World; in its lower — the {{Style S-Small capitals|destroyer}}.

<nowiki>*</nowiki> The “ first " presupposes necessarily something which is the “ first brought forth," “ the first in time, space, and rank " — and therefore finite and conditioned. The “ first "

''cannot be the absolute,'' for it is a manifestation. Therefore, Eastern Occultism calls the Abstract All the “ Causeless One Cause," the “ Rootless Root," and limits the “ First Cause " to the ''Logos,'' in the sense that Plato gives to this term.

<nowiki>*</nowiki> See Mr. Subba Row’s four able lectures on the Bhagavad Gita, “ Theosophist," February, 1887.

† Called in Sanskrit: “ Upadhi."

†  Pilgrim " is the appellation given to our ''Monad'' (the two in one) during its cycle of incarnations. It is the only immortal and eternal principle in us, being an indivisible part of the integral whole — the Universal Spirit, from which it emanates, and into which it is absorbed at the end of the cycle. When it is said to emanate from the one  

<nowiki>*</nowiki> It is not the physical organisms that remain in ''statu quo,'' least of all their psychical principles, during the great Cosmic or even Solar pralayas, but only their Akâsic or astral “ photographs." But during the minor pralayas, once over-taken by the “ Night," the planets remain intact, though dead, as a huge animal, caught and embedded in the polar ice, remains the same for ages.

<nowiki>*</nowiki> Thus Spencer, who, nevertheless, like Schopenhauer and von Hartmann, only reflects an aspect of the old esoteric philosophers, and hence lands his readers on the bleak shore of Agnostic despair — reverently formulates the grand mystery ; “ that which persists unchanging in quantity, but ever changing in form, under these sensible appearances which the Universe presents to us, is an unknown and unknowable power, which we are obliged to recognise as without limit in Space and without beginning or end in time." It is only daring Theology — never Science or philosophy — which seeks to gauge the Infinite and unveil the Fathomless and Unknowable.