Publications: The Theosophist, Vol. I, No. 2, November, 1879, pp. 51-52
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160
FOOTNOTES TO “THE BRAHMACHÂRI BÂW”
[These footnotes are appended by H.P.B. to a translation of the Brahmachâri’s own account of his life.]
[“. . . relying fully on the protection and omniscience of the omnipotent Master (Iśwar).”]
See Bulwer’s Zanoni—the scene where Zanoni sees and meets with his “Adonai.”
[“. . . the omnipotence of the Lord (the divine I, or Spirit, the personal God of every individual) .”]
By Iśwar and Master is not meant the personal God, whom the believers in such God suppose to be the creator of the universe, and outside the universe—Brahmachâri Bâwâ does not recognize such a god in relation to the universe. His god is Brahma, the eternal and universal essence which pervades everything and everywhere and which in man is the divine essence which is his moral guide, is recognized in the instincts of conscience, makes him aspire to immortality and leads him to it. This divine spirit in man is designated Iśwar and corresponds to the name Adonai— Lord, of the Kabalists, i.e., the Lord within man.
[“Dattâtraya, the universal Lord.”] In the popular sense, Dattâtraya is the Trinity of Brahmâ, Vishnu, and Siva, incarnate in an Avatâra—of course as a triple essence. The esoteric, and true meaning is the adept’s own trinity of body, soul, and spirit; the three being all realized by him as real, existent, and potential. By Yoga training, the body becomes pure as a crystal casket, the soul purged of all its grossness, and the spirit which, before the beginning of his course of self-purification and development, was to him but a dream, has now become a reality—the man has become a demi-god.