The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2 of 4 The Synthesis of...

We are reminded in King's Gnostics and their Remains that the Greek language had but one word for vowel and voice. This has led the uninitiated to many erroneous interpretations. On the simple knowledge, however, of this well-known fact a comparison may be attempted, and a flood of light thrown upon several mystic meanings. Thus the words, so often used in the Upanishads and the Purânas, “Sound” and “Speech,” may be collated with the Gnostic “Vowels” and the “Voices” of the Thunders and Angels in Revelation. The same will be found in Pistis Sophia, and other ancient Fragments and MSS. This was remarked even by the matter-of-fact author of the above mentioned work.

Theseven heavens1326... sounded each one vowel, which, all combined together, formed a single doxology,“thesoundwhereof being carried down [from these seven heavens] to earth, becomes the creator and parent of all things that be on earth.”1327

The same injunction is given to Marcus, the same to all other semi and full Initiates. The very sameness of the expressions used, and of the underlying ideas, always betrays a portion of the Mysteries. We must always seek for more than one meaning in every mystery allegorically revealed, especially in those in which the number seven and its multiplication seven by seven, or forty-nine, appear. Now when, in Pistis Sophia, the Rabbi Jesus is requested by his disciples to reveal to them the “Mysteries of the Light of his Father”—i.e., of the Higher Self enlightened by Initiation and Divine Knowledge—Jesus answers:

Do ye seek after these mysteries? No mystery is more excellent than they; which shall bring your souls unto the Light of Lights, unto the place of Truth and Goodness, unto the place where there is neither male nor female, neither form in that place but Light, everlasting, not to be uttered. Nothing therefore is more excellent than the mysteries which ye seek after,saving only the mystery of the seven Vowels and their forty and nine Powers, and their numbers thereof. And no name is more excellent than all these (Vowels).1329

Now it becomes evident that, in every Esoteric interpretation of exoteric beliefs expressed in allegorical forms, there is the same underlying idea—the basic number seven, the compound of three and four, preceded by the divine three ([triangle]) making the perfect number ten.

Also, these numbers apply equally to divisions of time, to cosmography, metaphysical and physical, as well as to man and everything else in visible Nature. Thus these seven Vowels with their forty-nine Powers are identical with the three and the seven Fires of the Hindûs and their forty-nine Fires; identical with the numerical mysteries of the Persian Simorgh; identical with those of the Jewish Kabalists. The latter, dwarfing the numbers (their mode of “blinds”), made the duration of each successive Renewal, or what we call in Esoteric parlance Round, 1,000 years only or of the seven Renewals of the Globe 7,000 years, instead of, as is more likely, 7,000,000,000, and assigned to the total duration of the Universe 49,000 years only.1330

Now, the Secret Doctrine furnishes a key which reveals to us on the Indisputable grounds of comparative analogy that Garuda, the allegorical and monstrous half-man and half-bird—the Vâhana or vehicle on which Vishnu, as Kâla or “Time,” is shown to ride—is the origin of all such allegories. He is the Indian Phœnix, the emblem of cyclic and periodical time, the “Man-lion” (Sinha), of whose representations the so-called Gnostic gems are so full.1331

This is the Solar Lion and the emblem of the Solar Cycle, as Garuda1333 is that of the Great Cycle, the Mahâ Kalpa, coëternal with Vishnu, and also, of course, the emblem of the Sun and Solar Cycle. This is shown by the details of the allegory. At his birth, Garuda, on account of his “dazzling splendour,” is mistaken for Agni, the God of Fire, and was thence called Gaganeshvara, “Lord of the Sky.” Its representation as Osiris, on the Abraxas (Gnostic) gems, and by many heads of allegorical monsters, with the head and beak of an eagle or a hawk—both solar birds—denotes Garuda's solar and cyclic character. His son is Jatâyu, the cycle of 60,000 years. As well remarked by C. W. King:

The mysteries of the seven Gnostic Vowels, uttered by the Thunders of St. John, can be unriddled only by the primeval and original Occultism of Âryâvarta, brought into India by the primeval Brâhmans, who had been initiated in Central Asia. And this is the Occultism we study and try to explain, as much as is possible, in these pages. Our doctrine of seven Races, and seven Rounds of life and evolution around our Terrestrial Chain of Spheres, may be found [pg 597] even in Revelation.1335 When the seven “Thunders,” or “Sounds,” or “Vowels”—one meaning out of the seven for each such vowel relates directly to our own Earth and its seven Root-Races in each Round—“had uttered their voices,” but had forbidden the Seer to write them, and made him “seal up those things,” what did the Angel, “standing upon the sea and upon the earth,” do?

He lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, ... that thereshould be time no longer: but in the days of the voice of theseventhangel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God [of the Cycle] should be finished.1336

This means, in Theosophic phraseology, that when the Seventh Round is completed, then Time will cease. “There shall be time no longer”—very naturally, since Pralaya shall set in and there will remain no one on Earth to keep a division of time, during that periodical dissolution and arrest of conscious life.

Dr. Kenealy and others believed that the calculations of the cyclic seven and forty-nine were brought by the Rabbins from Chaldæa. This is more than likely. But the Babylonians, who had all those cycles and taught them only at their great initiatory mysteries of astrological Magic, got their wisdom and learning from India. It is not difficult, therefore, to recognize in them our own Esoteric Doctrine. In their secret computations, the Japanese have the same figures in their cycles. As to the Brâhmans, their Purânas and Upanishads are good proof of it. The latter have passed entirely into Gnostic literature; and a Brâhman needs only to read Pistis Sophia1337 to recognize his forefathers' property, even to the phraseology and similes used. Let us compare. In Pistis Sophia the disciples say to Jesus:

Rabbi, reveal unto us the mysteries of the Light [i.e., the“Fire of Knowledge or Enlightenment”], ... forasmuch as we have heard thee saying that there is[pg 598]another baptism ofsmoke, and another baptism of the Spirit of Holy Light [i.e.the Spirit of Fire].1338

The real significance of this statement is very profound. It means that John, a non-initiated ascetic, can impart to his disciples no greater wisdom than the Mysteries connected with the plane of Matter, of which Water is the symbol. His Gnosis was that of exoteric and ritualistic dogma, of dead-letter orthodoxy;1339 while the wisdom which Jesus, an Initiate of the Higher Mysteries, would reveal to them, was of a higher character, for it was the “Fire” Wisdom of the true Gnosis or real Spiritual Enlightenment. One was Fire, the other the Smoke. For Moses, the Fire on Mount Sinai and the Spiritual Wisdom; for the multitudes of the “people” below, for the profane, Mount Sinai in (through) Smoke, i.e., the exoteric husks of orthodox or sectarian ritualism.

Now, having the above in view, read the dialogue between the sages Nârada and Devamata in the Anugîtâ,1340 an episode from the Mahâbhârata, the antiquity and importance of which one can learn in the “Sacred Books of the East,” edited by Prof. Max Müller.1341 Nârada is discoursing upon the “breaths” or the “life-winds,” as they are called in the clumsy translations of such words as Prâna, Apâna, etc., whose full Esoteric meaning and application to individual functions can hardly be rendered in English. He says of this science that:

By “fire,” says the Commentator, he means the Self. By “intelligence,” the Occultist says, Nârada meant neither “discussion” nor “argumentation,” as Arjuna Mishra believes, but “intelligence” truly, or the adaptation of the Fire of Wisdom to exoteric ritualism for the profane. This is the chief concern of the Brâhmans, who were the first to set the example to other nations who thus anthropomorphized [pg 599] and carnalized the grandest metaphysical truths. Nârada shows this plainly and is made to say:

That is to say, that faculty in the disciple which apprehends the subtle truth (the flame) which escapes heavenward, while the objective sacrifice remains as a proof and evidence of piety only to the profane. For what else can Nârada mean by the following?

Those who understand the sacrifice understand the Samâna and the Vyâna as theprincipal(offering). The Prâna and Apâna are portions of the offering, ... and between them is thefire. That is the excellent seat of the Udâna as understood by Brâhmanas. As to that which is distinct from these pairs, hear me speak about that. Day and night are a pair, between them is the fire.... Thatwhich existsandthat which does not existare a pair, between them is the fire....1344

Now many people do not know the full meaning of the statement that Samâna and Vyâna, Prâna and Apâna—which are explained to be “life-winds,” but which we say are principles and their respective faculties and senses—are offered up to Udâna, the soi-disant principal “life-wind,” which is said to act at all the joints. And so the reader who is ignorant that the word “Fire” in these allegories means both the “Self” and the higher Divine Knowledge, will understand nothing in this, and will entirely miss the point of our argument, as the translator and even the editor, the great Oxford Sanskritist, F. Max Müller, have missed the true meaning of Nârada's words. Exoterically, this enumeration of “life-winds” has, of course, the meaning, approximately, which is surmised in the foot-notes, namely:

The senseappearsto be this: The course of worldly life is due to the operations of the life-winds which are attached to the self and lead to its manifestations as individual souls [?]. Of these, the Samâna and Vyâna are controlled and held under check by the Prâna and Apâna.... The latter two are held in check and controlled by the Udâna, which thus controls all. And the control of this, which is the control of all five, ... leads to the supreme self.1345

The above is given as an explanation of the text, which records the words of the Brâhmana, who narrates how he reached the ultimate Wisdom of Yogism, and in this wise reached All-knowledge. Saying [pg 600] that he had “perceived by means of the self the seat abiding in the self,”1346 where dwells the Brahma free from all; and explaining that that indestructible principle was entirely beyond the perception of senses—i.e., of the five “life-winds”—he adds that:

This “Fire,” according to Nîlakantha's commentary, is identical with the “I,” the Self, which is the goal of the ascetic; Vaishvânara being a word often used for the Self. Then the Brâhmana goes on to enumerate that which is meant by the word “sevenfold,” and says:

The nose [or smell], and the tongue [taste], and the eye, and the skin, and the ear as the fifth, the mind, and the understanding, these are the seven tongues of the blaze of Vaishvânara.1348... Those are the seven (kinds of) fuel for me.1349... These are theseven great officiating priests.1350

These seven priests are accepted by Arjuna Mishra in the sense of meaning “the soul distinguished as so many [souls, or principles] with reference to these several powers”; and, finally, the translator seems to accept the explanation, and reluctantly admits that “they may mean” this; though he himself takes the sense to mean: