Theosophical Society,
H P Blavatsky
The Septenary Principle in Esotericism
By
H P Blavatsky
Since
the exposition of the Arhat esoteric doctrine was begun, many who
had not acquainted themselves with the occult basis
of Hindu philosophy
have imagined that the two were in conflict. Some of
the more bigoted
have openly charged the Occultists of the
Theosophical Society with
propagating rank Buddhistic heresy; and have even
gone to the length of
affirming that the whole Theosophic movement was
but a masked Buddhistic
propaganda.
We were taunted by ignorant Brahmins and learned Europeans
that our septenary divisions of Nature and
everything in it, including
man, are arbitrary and not endorsed by the oldest
religious systems of
the East. It
is now proposed to throw a cursory glance at the Vedas,
the Upanishads, the Law-Books of Manu, and
especially the Vedanta, and
show that they too support our position. Even in their crude
exotericism their affirmation of the sevenfold
division is apparent.
Passage
after passage may be cited in proof. And
not only can the
mysterious number be found traced on every page of
the oldest Aryan
Sacred
Scriptures, but in the oldest books of Zoroastrianism as well;
in the rescued cylindrical tile records of old
the "Book of the Dead" and the Ritualism
of ancient
the Mosaic books--without mentioning the secret
Jewish works, such as
the Kabala.
The
limited space at command forces us to allow a few brief quotations
to stand as landmarks and not even attempt long
explanations. It is no
exaggeration to say that upon each
of the few hints now given in the
cited Slokas a thick volume might be written.
From
the well-known hymn To Time, in the Atharva-Veda (xix. 53):
"Time, like a brilliant steed with
seven rays,
Full of fecundity, bears all things
onward.
"Time, like a seven-wheeled, seven-naved
car moves on,
His rolling wheels are all the worlds, his
axle
Is immortality...."
--down
to Manu, "the first and the seventh man," the Vedas, the
Upanishads, and all the later systems of philosophy
teem with allusions
to this number.
Who was Manu, the son of Swayambhuva? The secret
doctrine tells us that this Manu was no man, but
the representation of
the first human races evolved with the help of the
Dhyan-Chohans (Devas)
at the beginning of the first Round. But we are
told in his Laws (Book
I.
80) that there are fourteen Manus for every Kalpa or "interval from
creation to creation" (read interval from
one minor "Pralaya" to
another) and that "in the present divine
age there have been as yet
seven Manus." Those who know that there are
seven Rounds, of which we
have passed three, and are now in the fourth; and who are taught that
there are seven dawns and seven twilights, or
fourteen Manvantaras;
that at the beginning of every Round and at the end,
and on and between
the planets, there is "an awakening to
illusive life," and "an awakening
to real life," and that, moreover, there are
"root-Manus," and what we
have to clumsily translate as the
"seed-Manus"--the seeds for the human
races of the forthcoming Round (a mystery divulged
but to those who have
passed the 3rd degree in initiation); those who have learned all that,
will be better prepared to understand the meaning of
the following. We
are told in the Sacred Hindu Scriptures that
"the first Manu produced
six other Manus (seven primary Manus in all), and
these produced in
their turn each seven other Manus" (
the latter standing in the occult treatises as 7 x
7. Thus it becomes
clear that Manu--the last one, the progenitor of our
Fourth Round
Humanity--must
be the seventh, since we are on our fourth Round, and
that there is a root-Manu on globe A and a seed-Manu
on globe G. Just
as each planetary Round commences with the
appearance of a "Root-Manu"
(Dhyan-Chohan)
and closes with a "Seed-Manu," so a root-and a seed-Manu
appear respectively at the beginning and the
termination of the human
period on any particular planet.
-------
*
The fact that Manu himself is made to declare that he was created by
Viraj
and then produced the ten Prajapatis, who again produced seven
Menus, who in their turn gave birth to seven
other Manus (Manu, I.
33-36),
relates to other still earlier mysteries, and is at the same
time a blind with regard to the doctrine of the
Septenary chain.
---------
It
will be easily seen from the foregoing statement that a Manu-antaric
period means, as the term implies, the time between
the appearance of
two Manus or Dhyan-Chohans: and hence a minor Manu-antara is the
duration of the seven races on any particular
planet, and a major
Manu-antara
is the period of one human round along the planetary chain.
Moreover,
that, as it is said that each of the seven Manus creates 7 x 7
Manus,
and that there are 49 root-races on the seven planets during each
Round,
then every root-race has its Manu. The
present seventh Manu is
called "Vaivasvata," and stands in the
exoteric texts for that Manu who
represents in
in the esoteric books we are told that Manu
Vaivasvata, the progenitor
of our fifth race--who saved it from the flood
that nearly exterminated
the fourth (Atlantean)--is not the seventh Manu,
mentioned in the
nomenclature of the Root, or
primitive Manus, but one of the 49
"emanated from this 'root'--Manu."
For
clearer comprehension we here give the names of the 14 Manus in
their respective order and relation to each Round:--
1st 1st (Root) Manu on Planet A.-Swayambhuva
Round. 1st
(Seed) Manu on Planet G.-Swarochi
(or)Swarotisha
2nd
2nd (R.) M.
on Planet A.-Uttama
Round
2nd (S.) M.
" " G.-Thamasa
3rd
3rd (R.) M.
" " A.-Raivata
Round
3rd (S.) M.
" " G.-Chackchuska
4th
4th (R.) M.
" " A.-Vaivasvata (our progenitor)
Round
4th (S.) M.
" " G.-Savarni
5th
5th (R.) M.
" " A.-Daksha Savarni
Round
5th (S.) M.
" " G.-Brahma Savarni
6th
6th (R.) M. on
Planet A.-Dharma Savarni
Round 6th (S.)
M. " " G.-Rudra Savarni
7th 7th (R.)
M. " " A.-Rouchya
Round 7th (S.)
M. " " G.-Bhoutya
Vaivasvata
thus, though seventh in the order given, is the primitive
Root-Manu
of our fourth Human Wave (the reader must always remember that
Manu
is not a man but collective humanity), while our Vaivasvata was but
one of the seven Minor Manus who are made to
preside over the seven
races of this our planet. Each of these has to become the witness of
one of the periodical and ever-recurring cataclysms
(by fire and water
in turn) that close the cycle of every
root-race. And it is this
Vaivasvata--the
Hindu ideal embodiment called respectively Xisusthrus,
Deukalion,
Noah, and by other names--who is the allegorical man who
rescued our race when nearly the whole
population of one hemisphere
perished by water, while the other hemisphere was
awakening from its
temporary obscuration.
The
number seven stands prominently conspicuous in even a cursory
comparison of the 11th Tablet of the Izdhubar
Legends of the Chaldean
account of the Deluge and the so-called Mosaic
books. In both the number
seven plays a most prominent part. The clean beasts are taken by
sevens, the fowls by sevens also; in seven days, it is promised Noah,
to rain upon the earth; thus he stays "yet other seven
days," and again
seven days;
while in the Chaldean. account of the Deluge,
on the
seventh day the rain abated. On the seventh day the dove is sent out;
by sevens, Xisusthrus takes "jugs of
wine" for the altar, &c. Why
such
coincidence?
And yet we are told by, and bound to believe in, the
European
Orientalists, when passing judgment alike upon the Babylonian
and Aryan chronology they call them
"extravagant and fanciful!"
Nevertheless,
while they give us no explanation of, nor have they ever
noticed, as far as we know, the strange identity
in the totals of the
Semitic,
Chaldean, and Aryan Hindu chronology, the students of Occult
Philosophy find the following fact
extremely suggestive. While the
period of the reign of the 10 Babylonian antediluvian
kings is given as
432,000
years,* the duration of the postdiluvian Kali-yug is also given
as 432,000, while the four ages or the divine
Maha-yug, yield in their
totality 4,320,000 years. Why should they, if fanciful and
"extravagant," give the identical figures, when neither
the Aryans nor
the Babylonians have surely borrowed anything from
each other! We
invite the attention of our occultists to the three
figures given--4
standing for the perfect square, 3 for the triad
(the seven universal
and the seven individual principles), and 2 the
symbol of our
illusionary world, a figure ignored and rejected by
Pythagoras.
--------
*
See "
Manus
and 10 Prajapatis and the 10 Sephiroths in the Book of Numbers--
they dwindle down to seven!
--------
It
is in the Upanishads and the Vedanta though, that we have to look for
the best corroborations of the occult
teachings. In the mystical
doctrine the Rahasya, or the
Upanishads--"the only Veda of all
thoughtful Hindus in the present day," as Monier
Williams is made to
confess, every word, as its very name implies,*
has a secret meaning
underlying it.
This meaning can be fully realized only by him who has a
full knowledge of Prana, the ONE LIFE, "the
nave to which are attached
the seven spokes of the Universal Wheel."
(Hymn to Prana, Atharva-Veda,
XI. 4.)
Even
European Orientalists agree that all the systems in
the human body:
(a) an exterior or gross body (sthula-sarira); (b) an
inner or shadowy body (sukshma), or linga-sarira (the
vehicle), the two
cemented with--(c), life (jiv or Karana sarira,
"causal body").** These
the occult system or esotericism divides into
seven, farther adding to
these--
treating of Prameyas (by which the objects and
subjects of Praman are to
be correctly understood) includes among the 12 the
seven "root
principles" (see IXth Sutra), which are 1,
soul (atman), and 2 its
superior spirit Jivatman; 3, body (sarira); 4, senses (indriya); 5,
activity or will (pravritti); 6, mind (manas); 7, Intellection
(Buddhi).
The seven Padarthas (inquiries or predicates of existing
things) of Kanada in the Vaiseshikas, refer in the
occult doctrine to
the seven qualities or attributes of the seven
principles. Thus: 1,
substance (dravya) refers to body or
sthula-sarira; 2, quality or
property (guna) to the life principle, jiv; 3, action or act (karman)
to the Linga, sarira; 4, Community or commingling
of properties
(Samanya)
to Kamarupa; 5, personality or conscious individuality
(Visesha)
to Manas; 6,
co-inherence or perpetual intimate relation
(Samuvuya)
to Buddhi, the inseparable vehicle of Atman; 7,
non-existence or non-being in the
sense of, and as separate from,
objectivity or substance (abhava)--to the highest
monad or Atman.
-------
*
Upa-ni-shad means, according to Brahminical authority, "to conquer
ignorance by revealing the secret spiritual
knowledge." According to
Monier
Williams, the title is derived from the root sad with the
prepositions upa and ni, and implies
"something mystical that underlies
or is beneath the surface."
**
This Karana-sarira is often mistaken by the uninitiated for
Linga-sarira,
and since it is described as the inner rudimentary or
latent embryo of the body, confounded with it. But the Occultists
regard it as the life (body) or Jiv, which disappears
at death; is
withdrawn--leaving the 1st and 3rd principles to
disintegrate and
return to their elements.
----------
Thus,
whether we view the ONE as the Vedic Purusha or Brahman (neuter)
the "all-expanding essence;" or as the universal spirit, the "light
of
lights" (jyotisham jyotih) the TOTAL independent
of all relation, of the
Upanishads; or as the
Paramatman of the Vedanta; or again as
Kanada's
Adrishta,
"the unseen Force," or divine atom; or as Prakriti, the
"eternally existing essence," of Kapila--we find in all
these impersonal
universal Principles the latent capability of
evolving out of themselves
"six rays" (the evolver being the seventh). The third aphorism of the
Sankhya-Karika,
which says of Prakriti that it is the "root and
substance of all things," and no production,
but itself a producer of
"seven things, which produced by it, become also
producers," has a
purely occult meaning.
What
are the "producers" evoluted from this universal root-principle,
Mula-prakriti
or undifferentiated primeval cosmic matter, which evolves
out of itself consciousness and mind, and is
generally called "Prakriti"
and amulam mulam, "the rootless root,"
and Aryakta, the "unevolved
evolver," &c.? This primordial tattwa or "eternally
existing 'that,'"
the unknown essence, is said to produce as a first
producer, 1, Buddhi--
"intellect"--whether we apply the latter to the 6th
macrocosmic or
microcosmic principle. This first produced produces in its turn (or
is
the source of) Ahankara,
"self-consciousness" and manas "mind." The
reader will please always remember that the Mahat or
great source of
these two internal faculties, "Buddhi" per
se, can have neither
self-consciousness nor mind; viz., the 6th principle in man can preserve
an essence of personal self-consciousness or
"personal individuality" only
by absorbing within itself its own waters, which
have run through that
finite faculty;
for Ahankara, that is the perception of "I," or the
sense of one's personal individuality, justly
represented by the term
"Ego-ism,"
belongs to the second, or rather the third, production out of
the seven, viz., to the 5th principle, or
Manas. It is the latter which
draws "as the web issues from the spider"
along the thread of Prakriti,
the "root principle," the four following
subtle elementary principles or
particles--Tanmatras, out of which "third
class," the Mahabhutas or the
gross elementary principles, or rather sarira and
rupas, are evolved--
the
"Prakriti"--the
Sattwa, Rajas and Tamas (purity, passionate activity,
and ignorance or darkness)--spun into a triple-stranded
cord or "rope,"
pass through the seven, or rather six, human
principles.
It
depends on the 5th--Manas or Ahankara, the "I"--to thin the guna,
"rope," into one thread--the sattwa; and thus by becoming one with the
"unevolved evolver," win immortality or eternal
conscious existence.
Otherwise
it will be again resolved into its Mahabhautic essence; so
long as the triple-stranded rope is left unstranded,
the spirit (the
divine monad) is bound by the presence of the gunas in
the principles
"like an animal" (purusha pasu). The spirit, atman or jivatman (the 7th
and 6th principles), whether of the macro-or
microcosm, though bound by
these gunas during the objective manifestation of
universe or man, is
yet nirguna--i.e., entirely free from them. Out of the three producers
or evolvers, Prakriti, Buddhi and Ahankara, it is
but the latter that
can be caught (when man is concerned) and destroyed
when personal. The
"divine monad" is aguna (devoid of qualities), while
Prakriti, once that
from passive Mula-prakriti it has become avyakta (an
active evolver) is
gunavat--endowed with qualities. With the latter, Purusha or Atman can
have nought to do (of course being unable to
perceive it in its
gunuvatic state);
with the former--or Mula-prakriti or undifferentiated
cosmic essence--it has, since it is one with it and
identical.
The
Atma Bodha, or "knowledge of soul," a tract written by the great
Sankaracharya,
speaks distinctly of the seven principles in man (see
14th verse). They are called therein the five sheaths
(panchakosa) in
which is enclosed the divine monad--the Atman, and
Buddhi, the 7th and
6th
principles, or the individuated soul when made
distinct (through
avidya, maya and the gunas) from the supreme
soul--Parabrahm. The 1st
sheath, called Ananda-maya--the "illusion of
supreme bliss"--is the
manas or fifth principle of the occultists, when
united with Buddhi;
the 2nd sheath is Vjnana-maya-kosa, the case or
"envelope of
self-delusion," the manas when
self-deluded into the belief of the
personal "I," or ego, with its
vehicle. The 3rd, the Mano-maya sheath,
composed of "illusionary mind"
associated with the organs of action and
will, is the Kamarupa and Linga-sarira combined,
producing an illusive
"I" or Mayavi-rupa. The 4th sheath is called Prana-maya,
"illusionary
life," our second life principle or jiv,
wherein resides life, the
"breathing" sheath.
The 5th kosa is called Anna-maya, or the sheath
supported by food--our gross material body. All these sheaths produce
other smaller sheaths, or six attributes or qualities
each, the seventh
being always the root sheath; and the Atman or spirit passing through
all these subtle ethereal bodies like a thread, is
called the
"thread-soul" or sutratman.
We
may conclude with the above demonstration.
Verily the Esoteric
doctrine may well be called in its turn the
"thread-doctrine," since,
like Sutratman or Pranatman, it passes through and
strings together all
the ancient philosophical religious systems, and,
what is more,
reconciles and explains them. For though seeming so unlike externally,
they have but one foundation, and of that the
extent, depth, breadth and
nature are known to those who have become, like the
"Wise Men of the
East," adepts in Occult Science.
--H.P.
Blavatsky
Theosophical Society,